Explore key concepts underlying safe, multidisciplinary airway management.

40,340 enrolled on this course

  • Duration

    5 weeks
  • Weekly study

    4 hours

Develop safe airway management strategies for your patients

The safe management of a patient’s airway is one of the most challenging and complex tasks undertaken by a health professional - complications can result in devastating outcomes.

How can we improve safety, prevent complications, and be prepared to manage difficulties when they arise?

How, in a crisis, can we ensure that human and technical resources are best utilised?

Our course will provide answers to these key questions and help you develop strategies to improve patient safety in your area of practice, discussing safe airway management in patient groups and multidisciplinary clinical settings.

This course has been updated with the latest guidance on airway management in patients with COVID-19 and relevant personal protective equipment.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 6 seconds Hello, my name is Kevin Fong. I’m a consultant anaesthetist at UCLH, and I’ve got a special interest in safety, risk management, human factors, and pre-hospital medicine. Hi, my name is Emilie Hoogenboom. I’m an anaesthetist at UCLH. I have a particular interest in airway management, training, and education. At its most basic level, the purpose of airway management is to make sure that sufficient oxygen is circulating in the patient’s blood and carbon dioxide cleared from the body, whilst the lungs are protected from harmful swelling. Plans and techniques need to be tailored to the patient’s needs and the clinical circumstances.

Skip to 0 minutes and 46 seconds These range from basic airway opening manoeuvres and the application of oxygen via nasal conduit to more complex intervention such as awake fiberoptic intubation, and jet ventilation Ensuring safety is paramount during all of these procedures. The skills and training are relevant across multiple medical and nursing specialties. This course is for the whole multidisciplinary team. How can we make airway management safer, and how can we prevent and prepare to manage difficulties? How in a crisis can we ensure that all the human and technical resources are properly used, and how can we maximise the chance that we save patients’ lives? To answer these questions together, over the course of five weeks we’ll learn from patients, front-line clinicians, and leading experts in the field.

Skip to 1 minute and 35 seconds We’ll explore with you matters surrounding airway management, with a particular focus on safe and holistic care for our patients. We’ll also take part in a global discussion, and offer high quality practical advice, as well as exciting state of the art evidence-based resources. We’ll explore how to improve patient safety we need to consider human factors and ergonomics, and along side safety during these course we focus on the multidisciplinary aspects of teamwork occurring during airway management. This course is intended to help you provide a safe airway management strategy- a series of steps which you can use to respond to the clinical situation, and explore practical ways to be prepared to deal with unanticipated difficulties such as can’t intubate and can’t oxygenate scenarios.

Skip to 2 minutes and 27 seconds If you’re a health care professional looking to improve safety and make a real difference in patient outcomes and their overall experience, please join us by enrolling in this free course today.

What topics will you cover?

This course has been carefully designed to provide an up-to-date and practical educational experience, with learners accessing comprehensive course materials developed in collaboration with leading experts, frontline clinicians, and patients.

Week 1: Safe Airway Management, Human Factors and Ergonomics, Airway Anatomy

  • Airway Safety: The Big Picture
  • NAP4, Key Findings and Recommendations
  • Human Factors and Ergonomics
  • Airway Management in patients with COVID-19
  • Anatomy: a Journey Through the Airways

Week 2: Airway Assessment and Planning, Cognitive Tools, Dealing with Emergencies

  • Assess the Airway and Develop a Strategy
  • Airway Equipment
  • Cognitive Tools
  • Can’t Intubate, Can’t Oxygenate

Week 3: Safety and Special Techniques

  • Rapid Sequence Induction
  • Extubation
  • The Obstructed Airway
  • Special Techniques: Awake Tracheal Intubation, High-Flow Nasal Oxygenation, Jet Ventilation, LASER

Week 4: The Shared Airways

  • The Patient Journey
  • Tracheostomies and Laryngectomies
  • The Critically Ill Patient
  • Prehospital Airway Management

Week 5: Airway Management in Special Circumstances

  • Paediatrics
  • Obstetrics
  • Obesity
  • A Global Perspective

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Improve your strategies to deal with the unexpected difficult airway and explore guidelines to use in special circumstances.
  • Identify the key learning points and recommendations from the 4th National Audit Project (NAP4) on major complications of airway management in the UK.
  • Apply the principles of multidisciplinary planning, communication and teamwork in shared airways interventions.
  • Describe the technical and non-technical aspects of safe airway management for patients undergoing elective or emergency surgery, and the critically ill.
  • Engage in a global discussion on airway matters with health professionals from around the world.
  • Describe challenges to health professionals when managing airways of patients with COVID-19

Who is the course for?

This course, endorsed by the Difficult Airway Society, is for all members of the multidisciplinary team who provide airway support to patients, or care for patients with a compromised airway. This includes anaesthetists, anaesthesia associates, operating department practitioners, nurses, physiotherapists, adult and paediatric intensivists, prehospital and emergency medicine physicians, paramedics, head and neck surgeons and members of the cardiac arrest team.

The course is in English and the learning outcomes are relevant to UK based and international colleagues.

Health professionals might find the Certificate of Achievement for this course useful for providing evidence of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) or commitment to their career.

Who will you learn with?

Emilie is a consultant in anaesthesia at UCLH, and an honorary senior clinical teaching fellow at UCL, with a special interest in airway management, teaching and education.

Abigail is a consultant in anaesthesia at University College Hospital, London and an honorary associate professor at UCL. Her main specialist interests are perioperative medicine and medical education

Laura is a consultant anaesthetist at University College London Hospital, with special interests in airway management and paediatric anaesthesia.

David is a locum consultant in anaesthesia at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. He has a particular interest in ENT anaesthesia and difficult airway management.

Viki is a consultant anaesthetist at University College London Hospitals, she has a special interest in airway management, teaching and education.

Promoted by

CODP logo

Who developed the course?

UCL (University College London)

UCL was founded in 1826. It was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, and the first to open up university education to those previously excluded from it.

University College London Hospitals

UCLH provides first class general and specialist services to patients locally in London and from throughout the UK and abroad.

Endorsers and supporters

endorsed by

Difficult Airway Society Logo

endorsed by

The Royal College of Anaesthetists logo

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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