Basic Life Support

Overview

The Basic Life Support course has a number of exciting features that make it a truly unique part of the Birmingham experience:

1. Near-peer teaching – 1^st year students are taught by trained 2^nd year students and assessed by students in their 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th years of study.

2. Offers teaching and assessment experience – at the end of the 1^st year, students may apply to teach on the course. Not only is this great fun, but it provides experience that is highly valued by employers and the GMC.

3. Offers committee & leadership experience – the course is organised and run by a student committee. The supervising clinical staff take a hands-off approach to running the course, providing students with unprecedented organisational responsibility in a supported environment.

4. Offers research experience – the course has a strong research background and the students involved in running it have presented work at a number of international conferences, most recently in Vienna and Bologna.

5. Offers experience in teaching school children – our student teachers have the opportunity to teach BLS to local school children as part of the British Heart Foundation’s HeartStart programme, and to prospective students and their parents at University open and community days.

For us, an important feature is that, whilst only 1^st years take the course, for those wishing to remain involved it really is a course that keeps on giving throughout your time at Birmingham; providing valuable experience and qualifications to further students’ professional development.

The first year experience

Over the course of their 1^st year, students will attend three Monday evening sessions each lasting 2½ hours each. During these practical sessions students learn:

• Assessment of an unconscious patient
• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
• Use of an automated defibrillator
• Adaptations to BLS in children and the drowning casualty
• How to place a casualty in the recovery position.
• First aid: management of chocking and bleeding

On the third evening the students take an exit examination. This is compulsory and required for students to progress in to their 2^nd year. After several hours of practical teaching, students are highly competent providers of the BLS skill-set.

On successful completion of the course, students gain certification as a BLS providers from the European Resuscitation Council. The BLS course at Birmingham represents the largest ERC accredited course in Europe. 

The course is also endorsed the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, the professional body for health care professionals involved in intensive care medicine.

Getting involved with the course

Our student teachers are in their 2^nd year of study with our examiners being 3^rd year students and older. After taking the course, all 1^st year students have the opportunity to apply to teach the course. On successfully applying, students are trained to teach using a syllabus fully accredited by the European Resuscitation Council. Teachers teach their groups independently but are supported by a member of the committee.

Having successfully taught for a year, teachers may apply to become examiners. Examiners are re-taught on the standard Basic Life Support Course and receive additional training focussed on how to examine students.

Every year, a small number of students join the organising committee to replace the students graduating. This is a very exciting opportunity to develop organisational, leadership and research skills. Many committee members will also choose to remain associated and involved with the course after graduating and help with the training of new teachers.

Community involvement

Since 2013, we are one of the main providers of the British Heart Foundation (BHF) HeartStart course. This initiative from the BHF aims to teach school-age children basic life support skills and reduce the number of deaths from cardiac arrest.

Teachers who have taught for at least one year have the opportunity to teach in local schools.

Research

The Birmingham Basic Life Support course has a strong history of producing high-quality, student-led research. Previous topics have included:

a. Analysing the success of near-peer BLS teaching.

b. Investigating the best ways to deliver high-quality BLS in challenging environments.

c. Investigating the effects of new guidelines for BLS provision.

d. Testing new methods of teaching BLS.

This research has not only been presented at several international conferences, but has led to numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Ellen Murgatroyd

Basic Life Support Committee Chair, BDS Dental Surgery

“The Basic Life Support programme at Birmingham has become an increasingly large part of my university experience. I taught on the course as a second-year student and was then fortunate enough to become part of the student faculty in my third year. I am now in my final year of study and am currently chair of the committee. The opportunities that have arisen from being part of the RMD student faculty are infinite. I have taught on courses at universities across the UK, presented at international conferences, been involved in research and provided basic life support teaching to volunteers for the commonwealth games. I love working with an interdisciplinary team and have fostered great friendships with people both here at Birmingham and in other partner universities where the RMD model has been adopted. I feel passionate about the importance of basic life support and am so lucky to play a part in the education of all first-year healthcare students at the University of Birmingham and in the personal development of all our teachers, examiners and student faculty members. I have gained numerous personal and professional benefits from being a member of the RMD student faculty, developing skills that I will no doubt use throughout my dental career.”