Article Text

Download PDFPDF

EP069 A new kid on the block: Erector spinae plane block (ESPB) ‘tea-trolley’ teaching
Free
  1. Alexander Dunn1 and
  2. Anandh Balu2
  1. 1Anaesthetics, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
  2. 2Anaesthetics, Birmingham Children’s Hospital , Birmingham, UK

Abstract

Background and Aims ESPB’s provide postoperative analgesia for patients undergoing breast, thoracic and abdominal surgery (1-3) and improve respiratory function in rib fracture patients (4,5). Lack of awareness, competence or belief in practicality are intrinsic barriers for regional anaesthesia implementation (6). ‘Tea-trolley’ teaching is a novel and fun modality of condensed practical skill teaching within working clinical environments (7,8). We delivered ESPB ‘tea-trolley’ teaching at Russells Hall Hospital (RHH) to overcome these barriers and increase ESPB provision.

Methods The ‘tea-trolley’ teaching team attended RHH ICU and each operating theatre (day case, main and obstetric). A three minute ESPB presentation (9) was delivered (along with hot beverages/biscuits) followed by each candidate undergoing live-volunteer scanning practice and then immediate ESP mannequin needling practice. Each candidate completed pre-/post-teaching surveys.

Results There were 17 survey respondents; 9 consultants, 8 trainees. Pre-teaching, 76% respondents had not seen/performed an ESPB (including 8 consultants) and 65% of respondents were unaware of relevant anatomical landmarks for safe performance; post-teaching 100% respondents were aware. Pre-teaching, 82% of respondents felt either quite/very under-confident performing an ESPB (12% felt neither confident/under-confident); post-session 88% of respondents felt either quite/very confident performing an ESPB. Of those respondents involved in management of rib fractures or breast surgery 100% responded the training would change their practice (50% ‘yes definitely’/50% ‘yes maybe’).

Conclusions ‘Tea-trolley’ is a low-tech, inclusive and effective teaching modality for ESPB. Our data suggests ‘tea-tolley’ training is an effective modality to overcome intrinsic barriers of regional anaesthesia implementation and therefore a useful modality for teaching other regional anaesthetic techniques.

  • ESPB
  • teaching
  • tea-trolley

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.