MTSA announced it will continue to offer hands-on training courses for CRNAs, utilizing cadavers, “live” scanning models and state-of-the-art ultrasound technology. Two Advanced Cadaveric Ultrasound-Guided Regional Anesthesia workshops will be offered this year: Aug. 2 and Oct. 25.

During these workshops, participants receive the benefits of small-group “live” scanning and needling stations, low faculty-to-attendee ratios, and an individualized learning plan that suits the attendee’s needs in regional anesthesia, according to Bill Johnson, DNAP, CRNA, Director of the MTSA Acute Surgical Pain Management Fellowship. Information presented is highly practical and immediately useful to the attendee’s daily clinical practice.

As an example of the workshops’ applicability, Johnson said, “Dr. Serge Marchand, PhD, presented a lecture during the Regional Cadaveric Workshop in February and did a great job discussing the mechanisms of persistent postsurgical pain.”

During the upcoming workshops, Johnson said that the following blocks will be taught and demonstrated: PECs I/II, erector spinae, infraclavicular, serratus anterior, costoclavicular, RAPTIR, quadratus lumborum, TAP (iliohypogastric/ilioinguinal, transversalis, and posterior TAP), suprascapular (anterior and posterior approaches), and paravertebral nerve blocks. Advanced approaches to upper and lower extremity will also be taught, to include axillary at the circumflex artery, distal upper/lower USGRA blocks, and anterior sciatic.

In addition, Johnson will welcome anatomists from a local university (trained PhDs and DPTs) to perform the dissection and instruction of the anatomy related specifically to regional anesthesia. Simultaneous explanations of sonoanatomy will coincide with the gross anatomic dissections. These anatomists will also teach neuromuscular assessment of nerves, mapping of nerve lesions, and documentation of these findings.

Instructors for the daylong workshop include Johnson; Stace Dollar, MS, CRNA; John M. Edwards, III, MS, CRNA; Kelly Martin, MS, CRNA; and MTSA Acute Surgical Pain Management Fellows.

Participants can earn up to 16 Class A CE credits by completing the pre-course content and the course content combined.

Registration is available at www.mtsa.edu/workshops. For more information contact Bill Johnson at (615) 732-7846 or bill.johnson@mtsa.edu.