CACTUS Course

This is a 2-day face-to-face ventilation course centred on the care of children and adolescents.

The course also has a self-paced online component (ESPNIC online ventilation course). It is tailored for health professionals (doctors, nurses and allied health professionals) working on paediatric critical care and high dependency units.

The educational material for the course is based on the Handbook of Paediatric and Neonatal Mechanical Ventilation (Alberto Medina Villanueva, ESPNIC), the ESPNIC online mechanical ventilation course, Paediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conference (PALICC) and Recommendations for mechanical ventilation of critically ill children from the Paediatric Mechanical Ventilation Consensus Conference (PEMVECC).

  • To review the basic respiratory physiology
  • To understand the principles of mechanical ventilation
  • To become familiar with conventional modes of ventilation
  • To improve understanding and interpretation of ventilator waveforms
  • To troubleshoot patient-ventilator issues including asynchrony
  • To understand the advantages and limitations of mechanical ventilation
  • To get familiar with transport ventilation
  • To review the basic principles of non-invasive mechanical ventilation

ESPNIC is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the care of the critically ill children and new-borns. Our society is comprised of Nurses, Doctors and Allied Healthcare Professionals who are committed to share knowledge and improve the quality of paediatric and neonatal intensive care at the European and international level. We are dedicated to raise awareness amongst professionals in the field, European and International organisations, through a wide range of activities including annual congresses, training programmes, teaching courses, and network opportunities with the leading experts in the fields of PICU & NICU.

What delegates say about this course

Really good hints and practical stations.

Really superb course. Nurturing faculty. Plenty of time to practise skills in a step wise manner.

Hands on stations were brilliant. Loads of practice was great and we all saw a definite improvement throughout the day.

Really helpful day. Greatly improved my confidence to incorporate u/s guided cannulation in my day to day practice.

Excellent hands on course. Faculty both knowledgeable and very approachable. Safe and comfortable learning environment.