The CARE Course is a two-day inter-professional team-oriented learning experience developed by rural healthcare practitioners for rural medical staff, nurses, and pre-hospital providers. It enhances healthcare teams’ ability to deliver comprehensive rural emergency care across airway management, trauma care, cardiac care, emergency obstetrics, pediatrics, and neonatal care.
Care team members from rural communities gathered on Gabriola Island October 18-19 to participate in the course. Just two days later, a locum physician who had participated in the course was on-call when a Gulf Island woman went into labour. The physician, along with two paramedics who had also completed the CARE course, worked to provide coordinated emergency care. The woman, attended by the locum, was transported to Nanaimo via Harbour Patrol boat and delivered a healthy baby at NRGH. The actions of this collaborative care team highlight the importance of continuing medical education programs in the rural communities we serve.