Comprehensive ECMO Education Program at UC San Diego Health

UC San Diego Health offers a fully comprehensive ECMO education program. We have several available packages that are tailored to your hospital's needs. All program offerings start with a free one-hour needs assessment lead by one of our team members. If interested in learning more, email us at [email protected].

ECMO Program Development or Improvement Consulting

For organizations interested in starting a brand new ECMO program, our team can assist in guideline and policy development, documentation design, operational and staffing planning, supply and equipment selection and management, and finance management. UC San Diego Health’s guidelines, policies and other reference material are shared as a template for the health organization.

ECMO Specialist Training and Education Program

This program is designed for health organizations that want to train registered nurses (RNs) or respiratory therapists (RTs) to be the bedside ECMO specialists. This comprehensive 20-hour program is designed to provide RTs or RNs with the education needed to manage ECMO in an ICU setting. It Includes:

• 4 hours of self-paced pre-learning
• An 8-hour day of didactic education
• An 8-hour day of high-fidelity ECMO simulation

Our ECMO Specialist training follows the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) Guidelines. We are continuously improving our curriculum to include current data and literature.

ECMO Specialist Continued Education

In addition to the initial ECMO Specialist education program, we have bi-monthly virtual didactic ECMO specialist continuing education. These sessions are 2-hours long and are offered 4 times a month. Each session provides a deep dive into a focused and practical ECMO topic. Some of the topics include:

• VA review: system, pressures and troubleshooting
• ECMO emergencies and ECMO mobility
• ECMO Coagulation and Anticoagulation
• VV review: system pressures and troubleshooting
• Weaning and withdrawal/oxygenator failure

Together, the continuing didactic sessions and simulation curriculum ensure ECMO Specialist knowledge and skills are maintained and continuously improved.

ECMO Provider and Cannulation Training

For organizations that want to educate or expand the existing knowledge of their ECMO physicians, physician assistants or other providers, we offer a tailored education program for your managing teams. These sessions are typically 3 hours long, and cover the ECMO circuit, patient management and ECMO emergencies.

Furthermore, for organizations interested in training their providers to cannulate, we offer in person cannulation training. This session is typically 3-hours long and includes a didactic and high-fidelity simulation training with our own custom ECMO cannulation model. Our team will review cannulation equipment, discuss vessel assessment methods and ultrasound, and review placement evaluation. The hands-on portion will prepare attendees for percutaneous cannulation.

Equipment, Location, and Pricing

Our education team can train to any ECMO equipment. We specialize in CardioHelp System (Getinge, Marquet, Sweden). Regarding the location, organizations may visit our program and be trained at UC San Diego Health in beautiful Southern California, or our team can travel to your organization for training.

To inquire about pricing, email [email protected] for a free needs assessment. After the assessment we will send you a tailored education package with pricing.