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The Learner’s Guidebook

a manual for how to use pac

WELCOME

Welcome to PAC! All of you are here because of your personal commitment to being better at what you do, and we are honored to be part of that journey. Please take a moment to review the information here. It will help you to get the most out of the experience with us. We look forward to seeing you soon at the head of the bed!

pac explained

“We are more than an airway course. Our work seeks to transform how we learn in medical education by developing the next generation teaching styles that meet learners where they live, and provides a more accessible, more engaging, effective, and inspiring learning experience.” -Jonathan St George – Director

When it comes to airway skills, there’s an important difference between knowing the path and walking the path. PAC was created around a single simple idea: that any airway knowledge is useless if it can’t be successfully translated into action during the stressful, and time-critical moments when it matters most. We believe that what you learn should function in the real world.

But achieving that goal in today’s education environment has many challenges. So we set out on a mission to solve this them by creating an new style of learning, One that focus not just on what you learn but how you learn.

We do this through partnerships with experts in medical education across all disciplines, and design experts outside of the traditional boundaries of medicine like the School of Visual Arts Design for Social Innovation, Cornell Tech and other artists here in NYC. Our work applies design thinking to the complex problems of learning in today’s healthcare environment, and explores the boundaries between digital and physical; remote and in person learning.

At PAC, our creators have built a series of uniquely immersive, interactive, and self-directed learning experiences that strengthen airway knowledge by addressing all the elements required for clinical mastery. Foundational knowledge, critical concepts, procedures, planning and logistics, teamwork, human factors and personal experience are all integrated seamlessly with expert coaching and high fidelity simulations into a unified learning experience that provides learners with a powerful opportunity to improve their airway management skills.

the digital space

The backbone of the system is our innovative new website that allows for simultaneous interactive learning across every space, and every theme based topic in the PAC universe throughout the entire day of an event and beyond. The website helps us to create a truly immersive, interactive and self-directed learning experience unheard of before in medical education.

No more classrooms, no more shuffling groups of learners from one place to another on a fixed schedule, no more one size fits all training. Instead learners decide what they want to learn and how they want to learn it. This is goal directed adult learning done the right way. 

Click Me
the physical space

We do all of this by designing the website to work seamlessly with our graphically designed posters and embedded QR codes that connect the digital content to the physical space. Each theme based poster explores one aspect of a specific topic like video laryngoscopy or the surgical airway. Put together in series within the physical space learners are exposed to big picture ideas, core concepts, personal experiences, and procedural skills with audio and video tools that provide guided hands on practice opportunities with the equipment provided in each installation.

Expert Coaching 
how to use them effectively

Expert coaches are available for you at key training stations to help you improve your skills. To use them effectively we encourage you to take time to practice on your own first. Most hands on stations have guided self-practice tools available.

Go ahead a practice on your own first in a judgement free zone, problem solve on your own or with a friend. Then ask coaches to give you feedback on your technique.

Take as much time as you like and come back as often as you like to spaced practice.

The SIMulation Challenges

Simulation challenges are designed to bring together all the core concepts and skills from within the self-directed and coaching portions of the installation. They run simultaneously with the installations on a set schedule.

Think of the self-directed spaces and the coaching as a huge supercharged flipped classroom for the simulation challenges, which ask you to deploy your new knowledge and skills in a realistic setting. 

Once you’re done with a simulation we encourage you to take that experience and use it to go back into the self-directed learning space to focus on the areas you need to review. This iterative process of self-directed learning, coaching, simulation, back to self-directed learning is part of the design and is what makes this design so powerful.

talks & expert panel discussions

Short engaging talks are incorporated in PAC events. Check out the list of speakers and panels and join in on the ones that interest you here.

Q&A after each session gives you chance to ask some questions of our expert faculty and guest speakers.

how to prepare

We’ve tried to make PAC events as stress free and engaging as possible for you. Our experience is that the day is full of great energy and learning and we don’t want confusion to distract from that experience. Here is what you can do to get ready. It should require minimal time. 👇

1

register for the website

The website is free to access but requires you to register in order to get full access. Please go here and sign up and then take a look around and familiarize yourself with the format.

2

sign up for simulations

Go ahead and pre-register for the simulations here. Most of them are run every hour on the hour.. Try to give yourself time to review the material in the space before doing the related sim. You can also do it in reverse, and use the sim go guide where you need to focus your learning within any theme based space.

IMPORTANT:

  • Please sign up for only TWO simulations.
  • Make sure to pick your SIMs from two different learning spaces (eg: one from Peds one from Anatomically difficult)
  • For spaces that have SIMs with more than one level (ie pediatric and physiologically difficult). Only sign up for one. For example if you sign up for the medium pediatric case, don’t also sign up for the spicy case.

MILD

Join the OxygeNATION

Own the Head of the Bed

The Pediatric Airway – Mild (10 AM, 1 PM) 

MEDIUM

The Physiologically Difficult Airway – Medium (11 AM, 2 PM)

The Pediatric Airway – Medium (11 AM, 2 PM)

SPICY

The Anatomically Difficult Airway

The Physiologically Difficult Airway – Spicy (10 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM)

The Pediatric Airway – Spicy (3 PM)

3

visit your learning space

The PAC universe of learning spaces lives here. One the great design features of PAC is that the physical spaces merge seamlessly with the physical spaces, which makes them available to you anytime before, during, or after our in person events. We encourage you to take some time to see what’s available and map your in person journey by deciding which learning spaces are most important to you.

FAQs


  • When is it?
  • Saturday, May 14th, 2022
  • Where is it?
  • At Cornell Medical College at 1305 York Ave.. The entrance is on 69th street. Then follow the signs up to the second floor of the medical school and check in.
  • Our volunteers will help get you situated.
  • What time should you be there?
  • 8am. Please arrive on time. We will have some breakfast available and then the pre-brief and introduction to the day will start right at 8:30am.
  • What should I bring?
  • It is VERY IMPORTANT that you bring your mobile device, headphones and a charger. All of the learning spaces require you to be able to access the interactive digital content through QR codes on your device.
  • Are there food drinks provided?
  • Yes!! We will have food, snacks and hydration available for all.
  • Is there a set schedule for each learning space?
  • Actually no! The doors to the learning spaces open at 9am and stay open all day for you to explore until 4pm.
  • Will there be breaks?
  • Yes! The beauty of the design is you can take a break whenever you want! The installations are open throughout the day from 9am – 4pm so if you need that extra cup of coffee 15 minutes into the day go for it. If you want to power through the morning and then take break that works too. This is your time.
  • Are there different levels? What if I’m a novice?
  • Every space in the course is designed to be accessible to all learners no matter what your level. We encourage you to visit as many of them as you can.
  • If you are early in your airway training however, we suggest you complete the Join the OxygeNATION and Own the Head of the Bed spaces first before moving to the others for a solid foundation.
  • What if my airway training is already quite advanced?
  • Each space has something for everyone, no matter what your level. We think you will find valuable content in EVERY space and we encourage you to explore all of them.
  • For advanced learners recommend that you make sure they leave time for all the difficult airway learning spaces that include the anatomically, physiologically, and situationally difficult airways.
  • What about the SIM challenges?
  • The simulations start at 10am and run throughout the day.. They are on a set schedule, and you must sign up for them ahead of time. We encourage you to sign up for two simulations.
  • We strongly encourage clinicians with less experience to sign up for the Join the OxygeNATION and Own the Head of the Bed simulations first.
  • For pediatric clinicians please also include the pediatric simulation.
  • More advance participants may sign up for any simulation that interests them
  • When are the live talks?
  • Live talks are going on all day in the main auditorium and are optional. Please review the schedule here to see if any of the talks interest you. We suggesting picking one or two that sound good as a great way to divide up the day’s activities.
  • How will I know what’s going on?
  • We will be communicating via our WhatsApp channel with everyone throughout the day to keep you posted on special live demonstrations and other events going on throughout the day. Please join here. or scan the QR code here.
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