Background and aims The author and co-author are the Irish Society of Regional Anaesthesia (ISRA) Trainee Representative and Regional Anaesthesia Fellow, respectively. We collaborated to devise a project that would enhance the training and safe use of regional anaesthesia in Ireland.

Aims:

1. Making learning opportunities readily available to trainees in peripheral training sites.

2. To increase safe usage of regional anaesthesia in Ireland.

3. To increase trainee and consultant awareness of ISRA.

4. To provide basic practical introduction to regional anaesthesia for anaesthetists of any stage of training.

5. To promote patient education and satisfaction with regional anaesthesia.

Methods

1. Travel to training sites with departmental approval for our visit.

2. 90–minute interactive session, short time scale allows introduction to the topic and facilitates attendance after clinical duties in the evening.

3. Divided into 3 sessions:

   • 30–minute interactive session covering essential topics such as ‘The Patient’, ‘The Practitioner’ and ‘The Procedure’ with a focus on safety

   • 30–minute session with hands on experience with ultrasound controls, needles of different types, and experience of local anaesthetic differentiation and use

   • 30–minute session on the femoral nerve block, using a model for scanning and multimedia methods of demonstrating anatomy. High–fidelity models and ultrasound available for needling practice

Results Description of innovative course.

Conclusions

1. This course is highly reproducible.

2. It offers an opportunity for our successors to increase teaching as well as event planning and management skills.

3. Novices in regional anaesthesia are offered an easy to access and cost effective means of learning the fundamentals of regional anaesthesia.