Hosted Training Success Stories

Indian Health Service Partnership
As part of Congress activities each year, the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) partners with local hospitals and community groups to sponsor a variety of public events that benefit the local community and healthcare systems.

In 2024, SCCM partnered with the Phoenix Area Indian Health Service (IHS) to provide education and resources to those who serve the Native American community. SCCM held a Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) course at the Phoenix Medical Center for 30 multiprofessional clinicians, who were trained in how to manage critically ill and injured patients for the first 24 hours or until appropriate critical care consultation can be arranged.

SCCM also provided IHS staff with access to multiple online resources and registered 42 staff members for Congress. SCCM provides full funding for these activities in support of its mission to secure the highest-quality care for all critically ill and injured patients.

2024 FCCS US

FCCS: Crisis Management Course Held With CDC Grant Support
The Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS): Crisis Management course prepares healthcare professionals to sustain patient care during both natural and man-made disasters and supports SCCM's mission to secure highest-quality care for all critically ill and injured patients.

Augusta University Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, USA, held a FCCS: Crisis Management course for 33 learners in 2024, funded by the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Augusta University Medical Center is a safety net hospital and part of Augusta Health.

2024 FCCS: Crisis Management US

FCCS: Obstetrics in Saudi Arabia
In May 2024, the Society of Critical Care Medicine's (SCCM) Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS): Obstetrics course was held in Saudi Arabia for the first time, in the state-of-the-art Riyadh Clinical Simulation Center at the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs Women's Health Specialist Hospital.

Yaseen Arabi, MD, FCCP, ATSF, FCCM, chairman of the Intensive Care Department, medical director of respiratory services, and professor in the College of Medicine at the King Abdulaziz Hospital, led the course. Learners included key members of the multidisciplinary team, including critical care and obstetrics physicians and bedside nurses. Learners not only gained knowledge but also built teamwork skills. Each skills station brought together clinicians with different skills from different units to learn in the low-risk environment of simulation.

The Postgraduate Training Center at the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs has held several FCCS courses. FCCS is an initiative for setting high standards of care for critically ill and injured patients.

2024 FCCS: Obstetrics International

Fundamentals Courses Help Critically Ill Patients in Underserved Areas
Thanks to the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation, Gisselle Aguilar Sabillon, MD, led two Pediatric Fundamental Critical Care Support (now called Fundamental Critical Care Support: Pediatrics) courses in San Pedro, Honduras.

These courses trained 39 pediatric residents and ICU nurses, providing standardized knowledge for caring for critically ill children.

2023 FCCS: Pediatrics International

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Spreading Point-of-Care Ultrasound Training with the SCCM Course
In 2014, Nibras F. Bughrara, MD, FASA, FCCM, joined Albany Medical Center (AMC) in Albany, New York, USA. At the time, he was the only intensivist at AMC using point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). Dr. Bughrara wanted to start a POCUS training program, but he knew it would be a massive undertaking to create a curriculum himself.

"Instead of wasting time trying to reinvent the wheel, we utilize state-of-the-art Society of Critical Care Medicine educational materials," said Dr. Bughrara. "The course is prepared by the best in the field and contains pathologic findings from patients all over. The course faculty are intensivists from a variety of backgrounds, including surgeon intensivists, cardiologist intensivists, pulmonologists, emergency medicine physicians, and anesthesiologists."

2023 Ultrasound US

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SCCM Training Across the World
The Society of Critical Care Medicine's (SCCM) Global Health programs, in partnership with Direct Relief, trained more than 190 clinicians with the Critical Care Ultrasound courses in Lviv, Ukraine.

Learners gained lifesaving medical knowledge, confidence, and point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) skills. SCCM donates 80 handheld ultrasound devices plus tablets containing SCCM expert-developed presentations, clinical cases, selected book chapters, slides, and videos translated into Ukrainian.

Jose L. Díaz-Gómez, MD, MAS, FCCM, a POCUS expert, left his home country of Colombia more than 20 years ago for the United States because of the lack of academic opportunities and unrelentless violence. "It is impossible to forget how violence demands the delivery of best care to increase the chances of survival," he said. "I strongly believe that our Ukrainian clinicians can save lives with such a powerful tool—ultrasound."

The mission, coordinated through SCCM's Global Health program, was made possible by a $2.5 million grant from SCCM's partner Direct Relief.

2023 Ultrasound International

SCCM Members Extend Commitment to Ukrainian Clinicians
Members of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) returned to Lviv, Ukraine, in September 2023 to provide advanced training courses that combined elements of its Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS): Surgical and ICU Liberation courses. With funding and support from the humanitarian aid organization Direct Relief, a multiprofessional group of SCCM members trained more than 300 clinicians to support patients who are admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) after surgical procedures to begin recovery and rehabilitation.

Following the successful ultrasound training SCCM held in March 2023, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine requested that SCCM return to Ukraine to provide FCCS: Surgical and ICU Liberation courses to clinicians. ICU Liberation team leader Jaspal Singh, MD, MS, FCCM is the medical director of pulmonary and critical care education at Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"They wanted the FCCS: Surgical course to provide fundamental skills in the stabilization of critically ill surgical patients," said Dr. Singh. "And they wanted the ICU Liberation course to help move ICU patients more quickly to lower levels of care and free up critical ICU capacity."

2023 FCCS International

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SCCM Supports FCCS Training in Tajikistan
Aga Khan Medical Centre in Khorog, Tajikistan, is a private hospital with the mandate to provide compassionate, accessible, cost-effective, and high-quality care to the people of the Badakhshan region of Tajikistan and cross-border areas of Afghanistan. Noormahal Kabani, MD, a pulmonary/critical care physician, Ismaili Health Professional Network (IHPA), and director of the Society of Critical Care Medicine's (SCCM) Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) course, proposed implementing the course to train hospital staff to treat critically ill patients in Khorog, Tajikistan. Thanks to support from many donors, SCCM was able to provide funding for the course.

While the online course is designed for self-learning, the faculty quickly realized that language was a barrier for many learners. They spoke Russian, Tajik, and Shughni. Several online sessions were conducted by the FCCS instructors, along with course consultant Muhammad Jaffar, MD, FASA, FCCM; Dr. Kabani; and instructor candidate Ashifa Moledina, DNP, ANCP. Translation assistance was provided by local physicians.

2022 FCCS International

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COVID-19 Shutdowns Expanded Opportunities to Teach Critical Care Medicine
Michael J. Waxman, MBA, MD, FCCM, began teaching Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) courses in 2008. Learners arrived from all over the country. Dr. Waxman expanded his role to become an FCCS consultant to train others on how to teach the courses.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, Dr. Waxman was still primarily teaching the two-day course in person locally four times a year. "What am I going to do?" he thought. "This could shut me down for quite a long time." Fortunately, the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) already offered an online version of the course, so he pivoted to take advantage of that opportunity.

Learners began taking the online course and would then meet virtually with Dr. Waxman to complete live, online versions of the skills stations. "All of a sudden, new opportunities opened up to teach in Africa or Asia," Dr. Waxman said.

2020 FCCS US

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Donor-Funded Training Supports Fundamentals Courses in Rwanda
In 2019, Kwame A. Akuamoah-Boateng, ACNP, MSN, organized a mission to Kigali, Rwanda, where he and 10 other faculty members led the Society of Critical Care Medicine's (SCCM) Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) course for 28 students.

"The ultimate goal of the trip was to use FCCS as a means to improve critical care knowledge acquisition from a fundamental standpoint and improve patient morbidity and mortality," said Mr. Akuamoah-Boateng.

2019 FCCS International

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Teaching Crisis Management in the United States and Around the World
Mary J. Reed, MD, FCCM, began teaching Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) courses about 25 years ago. Her involvement expanded to teaching multiple FCCS courses, helping develop courses, and teaching the courses overseas.

In 2010, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, Dr. Reed and Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) colleagues, led by Amado A. Baez, MD, MPH, PhD, FCCM, traveled to the neighboring Dominican Republic to teach FCCS and FCCS: Crisis Management to dozens of medical students. "A lot of victims of the earthquake came across to the Dominican Republic," said Dr. Reed. "They were dying on the way to Santo Domingo, and there was a hospital in Barahona that they could stop at and stabilize."

One of the reasons Dr. Reed loves teaching is witnessing that moment when it clicks for a student in the real world. "If you love what you do—which I do—you want to be able to spread that knowledge because it saves patients," she said.

2010 FCCS, FCCS: Crisis Management International

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