In Finland we have already a long tradition for AO courses for OR nurses. For some unknown reason, we just have been keeping quiet, no news spread anywhere about our courses. This time I thought I’ll change this and inform you about the 34th accomplishment in Finland.
The AOTrauma Course was held at an old manor house Haikko in Porvoo. It has been the venue for these events for quite a long time already. We don’t have courses running for surgeons simultaneously, so we have all the space just for us. This makes planning the course a bit easier, when scheduling practicals, meals etc.
We had 56 participants, all OR nurses, from all over Finland. Our faculty was composed by four OR nurses and one orthopaedic surgeon Dr. J M Björkenheim, who was next to me the other course chairperson. The other lecturing doctors just visited the course, some for a longer time, and some just for their lecture.
All the participants, faculty and the local Synthes team were very enthusiastic and active. The participants evaluated that the contents of the course were very useful for their work and that they learnt new things and techniques and understood what lies behind those techniques. Some said that there was almost too much to learn within such an intensive period of time. One thing the participants commented particularly was that they sensed the respect for the work of an OR nurse in the lectures of the surgeons.
For the first time in history of our AO courses we introduced a group discussion as learning method. The subject was: ”How to respond to the challenges of a trauma patient in the OR”. Discussions were held in four groups based on different cases. Unfortunately the groups were quite big due to the lack of moderators. Anyway this method was accepted very well, some even requested to have more of discussions next time. Others said listening to the feedbacks of the different discussion groups was a bit boring…
We also introduced colored cards as ARS method. It kept participants interactive with the speakers.
For many delegates the practical sessions were the main incentive to apply for an AOTrauma course. These sessions were conducted mostly by Dr. Björkenheim. The practical exercises were supplementing the theories that were learnt during the lectures and were done with great commitment.
The technical support from our industrial partner was excellent both during the lectures and during the practicals. It was very convenient to have a TV-monitor in front of the speaker during the practicals, so that he/she didn’t have to look behind their shoulders to check what was displayed for the audience.
The faculty had a pre-course meeting about three weeks before the course, and a post-course meeting about 1½ weeks after the course. We also had daily meetings after every day’s program. During those meetings many ideas came up in order to make these courses even better and better. There is always something we could do differently next time, no matter how content we all were after this AOTrauma course.
Eija Vasama, the other course chairperson