The professional scope of the course was defined and developed jointly by the Department of Medical Emergency and Air Ambulance experts. Staff of the Bogomolets National Medical University in Kyiv were responsible for providing the teaching facilities. Financial support was provided by the Society of Anesthesiologists and Intensivists of Ukraine.
The course was designed as a series of training workshops plus lectures. Their goal was to organize the knowledge about advanced life saving treatments in adults and children, fundamentals of tactical medicine, patient transport organizations and management of mass incidents at emergency care units and in pre-hospital treatment.
The practical training was based primarily on case studies derived from daily practice. The course participants could try themselves in working with patients (both adult and pediatric) whose condition has deteriorated and who had a sudden cardiac arrest, in various mechanisms. They had the opportunity to practice examination and key treatment interventions in an injury patient.
In every scenario that was prepared, special emphasis was on using team management tools and ultrasound diagnostics. An important part of the course/training was the work on an animal preparation which the trainees could use to practice emergency cricothyrotomy, escharotomy, needle decompression in tension pneumothorax, or chest drainage procedures. The aspects mentioned during the tactical medicine course were about patient examination according to the MARCH scheme, using the tourniquet properly, stopping hemorrhages at interim locations, rules and methods of extraction and evacuation (particularly with the use of the SKED® system).
The two final days of the course were spent by trainees on perfecting their skills in mass event management in emergency care and pre-hospital care settings. The course offered an opportunity to get to know such segregation systems as START, JumpSTART and SALT.
