CPD for Your Community
Afshin Khazei
EM Network Continuing Professional Development Lead
While working as a rural family physician early in his career, Dr. Khazei often felt a lack of resources, support, and learning opportunities to maintain critical skills. His goal as EM Network CPD Lead is to support physicians who find themselves in the same situation.
Creating a Culture of Safety
“Within a culture of safety mistakes are mysteries to be solved, rather than crimes to be punished,” says Dr. Khazei. “One way to do that is through regular, interprofessional simulation team training. This results in communicating effectively together to create a culture of safety around patient care.”
“Mistakes are mysteries to be solved, rather than crimes to be punished”
Simulation Outreach
Through the CPD Program, Dr. Khazei facilitates simulation events, engaging real teams, within their real environments. “During a simulation debrief, we can identify latent hazards, like a failing piece of equipment, or possible knowledge gaps”.
The EM Network website is a place to find created and curated EM CPD courses. The Network offers intensive 1-2 days simulation “bolus” courses, which can be requested to come to your community, and additionally “infusion”, or low-dose courses to maintain skills.
Simulation Instructor Course
The EM Network has created a course to train instructors to facilitate their own simulation training within their own clinical space. “The goal is to remove barriers to conducting low-dose training in high-frequency to maintain skills. This ultimately improves patient safety through reduced medical errors,” Dr. Khazei says.
Increasing Resiliency
Another important goal of the program is to increase care provider resiliency and sense of support. “What I would say to other sites around BC is if they have a program that’s already very strong, that’s wonderful. We’d love to just know about it. But if they have a program that does not exist, we’d be happy to start a fire and kindle that fire with them.”
All the EM Network outreach courses are scalable. “Even for smaller sites,” Dr. Khazei says, “there is real value in engaging the non-physician members of the health care team”.
For more information on EM Network CPD outreach courses, contact Dr. Khazei at afshin@bcemergencynetwork.ca, or complete the Request a Course for Your Community form.
