SMACCed to the Future

Second year of SMACC, this year I made the decision to go to a Workshop, that was not a mistake!

The second time round I get worried, I’ve been let down by second performances before (Jurassic Park: The Lost World, anyone?)

This was not a let down at all! After arriving at the hotel at 0100 on the Morning of SMACCForce, I went to sleep and awaited the bus.
SMACCForce was far less a workshop, more of a prehospital conference just prior to SMACC The speech by Ashley Leibig on PTSD, provider wellness, taking care of your own. I’m rather sad that that wasn’t filmed because it just got to me and really resonated.

There was also a captivating speech on what to do after an incident or accident by Mike Abernethy that was all about keeping the team functional but not rushing back into work.
Post incident time should be given for people to come to terms with what happened and their should be no pressure to return immediately to operations. I’ve seen it done both ways and I’ve seen the fallout from returning to immediate operations. I know how it effects the team and why it probably shouldn’t be done from an emotional perspective and probably effects the quality of care your providing and the degree to which you can render care.

Then onto the demonstrations by some of the HEM’s services on how Roadside RSI Should be done, How an inter-hospital transfer should look when done well.

After all this prehospital goodness, it was off to meet the EMSWolfpack, if you haven’t heard of the EMSWolfpack, it initially started as a discussion group among friends about what we would do and wanted to see in Chicago. Then we planned a meeting, opened it up to twitter and ended up packing out a pub in Chicago, we initially booked for 25…. I can say we far exceeded that. It was a great opportunity to meet  a lot of Prehospital Providers in a great space.
I will talk about the EMSWolfpack later in a separate post, needless to say its something you should look out for especially as you attend conferences round the world.

With Day one, SMACC Was off to a start, after a cannon malfunction the talks began. Cliff Reid lead off with Advise to young resuscitationists. Then Crack the Chest get Crucified by the late John Hinds. This has been made available faster than usual.

http://stemlynsblog.org/john-hinds-crack-the-chest-get-crucified/

Of course all the conference talks will be available through the magic of FOAMED as the months go on in the lead up to SMACCDUB.
As with all Smacc conferences, this was all about putting faces to names, shaking hands and hearing some truly amazing speakers who are not only experts in their field, but also nice people who you can hang out in a pub with.

I’m going to talk less about the Day to day running of SMACC because all the talks will come out and you’ll get most of the experience.

I will tell you to be on the look out for Tim Leeuwenburg’s All alone on Kangaroo Island, you have probably already seen the finishing move of the talk, but please don’t let that over shadow the message.

SMACC truly is an open conference as a prehospital provider, I felt it easier to pick my way through talks that interested me, because of the increase in concurrent sessions from last year.

If you have been having thoughts of going to SMACC its in Dublin next year! Start planning now, put in for leave, find a place to leave the kids or the dog and get there!