Courses
Training and education are key priorities for the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre. The NCCTRC training program offers many diverse opportunities across a broad range of specialties and represents a major investment in trauma and disaster training for clinicians across Australia, South East Asia and Pacific countries.
Our aim is to enhance preparedness through the provision and delivery of teaching, training and practice throughout the region whilst maintaining Ready Response Teams on standby, equipped to rescue and resuscitate victims of disasters, and where appropriate, assist in their coordination and repatriation to centres across Australia.
Due to the nature of NCCTRC core business please note in the event of activation in response to an incident, courses may be subsequently suspended or postponed at short notice.
Upcoming courses
For all training and education inquiries about upcoming courses and requests please email Education.NCCTRC@nt.gov.au
AUSMAT courses
This seven-week online and five-day residential course, held in the Northern Territory, is the first module of preparation for deployment as an Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) member. Developed to expose participants to a range of essential techniques and survival skills, this course prepares personnel to operate effectively in the field after a disaster.
This course focuses on testing participants’ capacity to function as valued team members in austere and challenging environments. Training involves both online lectures and practical exercises, including an overnight field deployment.
Course content includes:
- survival in austere environments
- equipment familiarisation and management
- hostile negotiation
- trip planning
- cultural awareness
- medical management of multi casualties in the field
- humanitarian operations
- crowd management
- water purification
This course is designed for:
- medical and nursing clinicians
- allied health workers
- emergency services workers
- environmental health officers
Participants must have completed a MIMMS Team Member or MIMMS Advanced course and be registered on the volunteer disaster database. Applicants must also meet the minimum eligibility criteria and be nominated by their home state or territory.
This five-day intensive online course focuses on high-level negotiation skills, international humanitarian systems and the role of Australian Government agencies’ during a deployment.
Course aim: To develop team leaders in their role as overall mission lead during a deployment.
Course content includes:
- humanitarian systems and international frameworks
- high-level negotiation
- team operations and dynamics
- AUSMAT capability familiarisation
- Legal frameworks and clinical governance
- medical operations and logistics in the field
- environmental health assessment
- needs assessment.
This course is designed for:
- senior medical and nursing clinicians
- senior emergency services workers
- senior medical defence force officers
- senior environmental health officers
Participants must be nominated by each state or territory with previous AUSMAT training and deployment experience.
This four-day course, held in the Northern Territory, provides training for disaster surgery and anaesthetics in the field. Developed to expose participants to a range of essential techniques and survival skills, the course prepares personnel to operate effectively as part of an Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT).
The course combines lectures with practical field simulations including an overnight field deployment.
Course content includes:
- humanitarian systems and international frameworks
- ethical conduct of appropriate disaster surgery
- health standards, health clusters and sphere principles
- disaster surgery and anaesthesia techniques
- limb salvage orthopaedics
- disaster general and neurosurgery techniques
- anaesthetics in austere environments
- practical establishment of a field hospital
- safety and security awareness
- hostile negotiation
- trip planning
- command and control principles
- equipment management and familiarisation
This course is designed for: senior surgeons, anaesthetists and theatre nurses. Applicants must also meet the minimum eligibility criteria and be nominated by their home state or territory.
This 3.5-day residential course provides training in rehabilitation in emergency medical teams and disasters and health emergencies more broadly, with a focus on low resource and cross cultural settings.
The course engages a range of teaching modalities including lectures, small group work and simulation exercises.
The aim of the course is to prepare participants for successful deployment as an AUSMAT Rehabilitation Team Member to a disaster or health emergency. Learning outcomes include developing knowledge and skills in:
- Rehabilitation in emergencies and AUSMAT’s place within the broader context of disaster and health emergency response
- Assessment of needs and identification of priorities for rehabilitation response
- Clinical and capacity building skills
This course is for: AUSMAT rehabilitation professionals, including occupational therapists and physiotherapists, and doctors and nurses specialising in rehabilitation.
This 4-day course, held in the Northern Territory is tailored for AUSMAT members who have previously completed the Team Member course. It provides an opportunity for participants who have not previously deployed or who have not deployed recently, to revisit the essential skills required to deploy in an austere environment.
Participants have the opportunity to learn about and test the latest technology developed for use on deployment, while becoming familiar with any updated EMT principles, practices and guidelines.
The course is delivered in a mixed-mode delivery with pre course learning, faculty presentations, workshops and simulation activities.
Trauma training
Lectures and workshops include:
- Command and control
- Triage (sieve and sort), treatment and transport
- Communications – practical use of radios
- Disaster medical equipment and resources
- Table top exercise
Suitable Participants:
Open to all registered medical practitioners, registered nurses, paramedics and ambulance officers, defence health personnel, NT Fire Service and emergency first responders.
This 1-day course is designed to provide Remote Area Health professionals with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills to be able to safely assess and manage trauma patients within the remote health centre until the arrival of the retrieval team.
RATE is provided in Remote Health Centres with an emphasis on practical skills, small interactive groups and relevant scenarios.
By the end of the course participants will be able to:
- Describe the initial assessment of the trauma patient in a remote setting.
- Demonstrate the assessment and management of a compromised airway (utilising basic and advanced airway manoeuvres).
- Demonstrate the assessment and management of chest / trauma injuries.
- Demonstrate the assessment and management of spinal injuries and haemorrhage control.
- Demonstrate how to give an effective clinical handover.
- Describe the requirements for retrieval and transport of the remote trauma patient.
- The Trauma Scenario provides an opportunity for participants to demonstrate and consolidate key learning points of the day
Suitable Participants:
The RATE course is aimed at Remote Health Personnel including Remote Medical Practitioners (RMP’s), Remote Area Nurses and Midwives (RANs) and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners (ATSIHPs).
This 2 day course is for personnel who attend pre-hospital incidents. The course provides participants with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills to safely and effectively manage trauma or disaster patients in the pre-hospital environment.
At the end of the course participants should be able to:
- Demonstrate the assessment and effective management of a vehicle crash scene
- Demonstrate the assessment and effective management of trapped casualties
- Demonstrate the safe extrication of trapped casualties
- Discuss the importance of and demonstrate working effectively within a team setting
- Discuss how to safely approach a house when attending a call out
- Demonstrate the triage sort and sieve, treatment and transport principles used within mass casualty incidents
Suitable Participants:
Remote Area Nurses, Remote Medical Practitioners, Medical and Nursing professionals, Retrieval Specialists, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners (ATSIHPs), Emergency Services, Mine Rescue and Australian Defence Force health personnel.
The content includes command safety, communication, assessment, triage, treatment and transport, through:
- Structured lectures
- A series of table-top exercises
- Practical exercises in radio communication
- Casualty simulation triage exercises
- Workshops
- Field exercises for command training involving airport and large crowd incidents (sports or similar)
Suitable Participants:
Those in senior positions likely to take a coordination or command role or those involved with staff development/training. A manual and materials are supplied as part of this course.
Criteria for Attendance:
This course is limited to nursing and medical staff working in Emergency, Surgical, Intensive Care or Anaesthesia , and those whose current role is to work in trauma team resuscitation.
Objectives of the course is
To use a structured team approach for early recognition and stabilisation of traumatic emergencies presenting to the trauma centre
Effective team leadership and team interaction
Skills for working effectively at an organisational level, including decision-making regarding consultation and disposition
Skills for safe practice and error minimisation
Developing an understanding of and familiarity with the concept of crisis resource management is a 1-day course to familiarise participants with the concepts of crisis resource management through the use of simulation based training scenarios.
While traditional MIMMS teaches a structured approach to responding at the scene of mass casualty incidents, Hospital MIMMS (HMIMMS) focusses on the delivery of care in the hospital environment.
This 2 day course explores the priorities and responsibilities of clinical and administrative responders facing a mass casualty incident in their hospital. An all-hazards approach is adopted while special incidents such as burns and chemical hazards are also covered. The concept of the collapsible hierarchy is introduced as a fundamental concept in the hospital based response.
The format includes;
- Lectures
- Small group workshops
- Novel interactive tabletop sessions which simulate the challenges facing responders during the phases of patient reception, definitive care and recovery.
Suitable Participants:
This course is aimed at personnel who would be involved in managing a major incident in the hospital. This can be clinical or non-clinical.
This is a 1-day Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) Advanced Life Support (ALS) course for registered health professionals requiring reaccreditation for ALS Level 2 and who hold a current ARC ALS 2 Certificate.
Pre-Requisite:
Applicants are required to forward a copy of their current ARC ALS 2 card or a copy of their certificate to Admin.NCCTRC@ nt.gov.au at the time of registration.
Receipt of certificate or ARC card copies is mandatory for a position in this course.
Participants whose ALS 2 provider status has expired will be required to complete the 2 day ALS 2 course.
This two day, Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) accredited course, aims to teach theory & practical skills to effectively manage cardiopulmonary arrests, peri-assist situations & special circumstances, whilst following the latest ARC guidelines.
Course content includes:
- Recognition, assessment & management of life threatening arrhythmias
- Defibrillation
- Basic & advanced airway management including Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA) insertion
- Legal & ethical issues in resuscitation
Pre-requisite:
Current Basic Life Support competent (evidence to be provided).
On succssful completion, the participant receives a certificate valid for 4 years however it is an ARC recommendation that skills are updated at least annually.
Suitable Participants:
Health professionals working within emergency departments, intensive care, high dependency, coronary care, operating theatres and retrieval, and is required to lead a resuscitation team. Appropriate participants include Doctors, Intensive Care Paramedics and Nurses.
CENA’s Trauma Nursing Program (TNP) builds upon your knowledge of the pathophysiology and epidemiology of common trauma conditions presenting to the Emergency Department, as well as providing the opportunity to improve clinical skills in key trauma related areas.
Pre-requisite:
Basic levels of competency in certain skills such as Basic Life Support and common monitoring equipment.
Suitable applicants include nurses providing emergency care to trauma patients in metropolitan and major regional hospitals. It is also suitable for nurses working in small rural and remote emergency facilities.