“One fantastic opportunity” – Keren Mowbray, Nurse Echocardiography

I was invited by NICCER to teach critical care echocardiography in Jakarta (Indonesia) and Singapore this year. It was a privilege being part of the faculty in teaching basic and intermediate echocardiography in the RACE plus and PIE courses in these two Asian countries. I am deeply influenced and impressed by the enthusiasm of the faculty and participants.

As a cardiac sonographer, with experience in the technical aspects of the ultrasound machine and imaging skills of the heart, I joined force with my experienced and very knowledgeable colleagues to disseminate the potential benefits of incorporating critical care echocardiography into clinical practice.

The participants were all receptive and keen to learn, with doctors from a broad range of specialties including intensive care, anaesthetics, respiratory medicine as well as cardiology, continuing their educational and learning journey. With the balance of quality theoretical lectures and practical sessions which emphasise hands-on scanning time, the courses enable the tailoring of content for learners just starting out (helping improve their techniques in finding acoustic windows and optimising images) while offering experienced candidates the opportunity to tackle more complex assessments and measurements.  

Being able to share my experience in “tips and tricks”, discuss pitfalls and solutions and see the improvement over the couple of days is encouraging with the hope that each participant can apply what they have learned once in their place of work.  Everyone was very welcoming and hospitable as the culinary delights of both Jakarta and Singapore well explored. This was a wonderful opportunity to network and broaden my perspective with like-minded clinicians and experts across the Asia Pacific region that has much to offer in the echocardiographic field. It was an overwhelmingly fulfilling experience that prompts further learning and knowledge.