Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for postgraduate competency based intensive care medicine training in the Netherlands: The next step towards excellence in intensive care medicine training.

Introduction: The Competency Based Training in Intensive Care Education (CoBaTrICE) programme developed common standards of ICM training by describing competencies of an intensivist. Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) of Intensive Care Medicine (ICM) (EPAsICM) are presented as a new workplace-based assessment tool in competency-based training of intensivists. EPAs are activities to be entrusted to a trainee once he (or she) has attained competence.

Are graduated intensivists prepared for practice? A case study from The Netherlands.

Purpose: An evaluation of the alignment between intensive care medicine (ICM) training and practice provides valuable information for the development of ICM training. Therefore this study examines how well recently licensed intensivists feel prepared for practice and whether intensivists from different background specialties attain comparable preparedness rates.

Methods: An inventory was developed to cover the tasks that constitute ICM practice.

[Tracheotomy in the intensive care unit is a tailor-made decision].

Tracheotomy is one of the oldest interventions in medical sciences. It is a procedure that is frequently used in patients who have been admitted to the intensive care unit. Over the last twenty years, the use of the dilation technique has increased in frequency.

Progress testing in intensive care medicine training: useful and feasible?!

So far the in-training assessment of knowledge is perhaps underrepresented in postgraduate assessment frameworks in intensive care medicine (ICM). In most contemporary training programs a predominant emphasis is placed on workplace based learning and workplace based assessment. This article provides a concise general background on the nature and use of progress testing, and touches upon potential strengths, and constraints regarding its potential implementation and use in the postgraduate ICM training programs.

Boussignac continuous positive airway pressure for weaning with tracheostomy tubes.

Background: In patients who are weaned with a tracheostomy tube (TT), continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is frequently used. Dedicated CPAP systems or ventilators with bulky tubing are usually applied. However, CPAP can also be effective without a ventilator by the disposable Boussignac CPAP (BCPAP) system that is normally used with face masks.