Free practice
For educators and EMS training programmes
Emergency medicine teaching resources for educators
For clinical tutors, simulation leads, preceptors, nursing and paramedic lecturers and ambulance educators. Run a free 30-minute session with any cohort, share public samples with students, map the session to your own outcomes, and ask about using a book with a class.
Free session plan
A repeatable 30-minute deterioration and handover session
One plan you can run every week with a new case. It suits a classroom, a skills lab, an ambulance station training day or a short slot before a shift, for groups of four to twenty. It needs a screen or printed copies of one free case and nothing else: no accounts, no app, no sign-up.
Choose this week's case
- Emergency department: lip swelling at triageRecognition and first-line treatment of anaphylaxis; good for nursing and medical students.
- Prehospital: sudden weakness at homeTime last known well, pre-alert and destination choice; good for paramedic and EMS cohorts.
- Remote clinic: abdominal pain and dizzinessShock recognition and transfer three hours from hospital; good for mixed or rural groups.
Each case is fictional, staged, and has its own answers and debrief points. Teach it alongside your local protocols and pathways.
Run sheet
| Minutes | Step | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3 | Brief | State the one learning goal for today (for example, "recognise and escalate a deteriorating patient"), that the case is fictional, and that mistakes are expected. Assign roles. |
| 3–10 | Stage 1: first look | Read stage 1 aloud. Each small group writes their first three priorities and the observation that worries them most, before anyone sees the next stage. |
| 10–17 | Stage 2: decide and escalate | Reveal stage 2. One learner gives an SBAR handover or escalation call to the facilitator, who plays the senior clinician or receiving team and asks one follow-up question. |
| 17–25 | Debrief | Open the case's answers. Use three questions: what did you notice, what did you decide and why, what would you do differently? Link each answer back to the learning goal. |
| 25–30 | Repeat and record | A different learner repeats the handover with the gaps closed. Learners write one thing they will do differently on their next shift or placement. |
Roles for a group of four
- Lead clinician: states priorities and the escalation plan.
- Assessor: works through the ABCDE assessment and reads out the observations.
- Communicator: gives the SBAR handover or escalation call.
- Observer: notes what was missed, using the debrief points or your own checklist.
Rotate roles each week so every learner gives a handover within a month. In larger groups, run several groups of four in parallel and debrief together.
Make it repeatable
- Keep the same run sheet and change only the case, so learners spend their effort on the decisions rather than the format.
- For a calculation focus, swap stage 2 for an exercise from the emergency drug calculations practice.
- For an ECG focus, use one tracing from the 12-lead ECG practice questions as stage 2.
- For assessment practice, the emergency medicine OSCE stations include marking checklists.
What this is and is not
This is a facilitated teaching plan. It does not assess competence, award certificates or CPD/CME credit, and it makes no claim about learner outcomes. If you need a record, use your programme's own observation or sign-off forms.
More on running the debrief: how to debrief a medical simulation. Prefer a shorter slot? Use the 15-minute ED handover drill.
Share with learners
Public samples you can link to today
Everything here is free and public. Link to it from your VLE or LMS, a slide or a reading list; learners need no account.
Learning routes
By profession
Book previews
Look inside the books
- ECGs Under Pressure ($24 PDF)
- Emergency Drug Calculations ($19 PDF)
- The On-Call Emergency Playbook ($29 PDF)
Prices are individual retail prices. Linking to a preview or a free page is always fine; copying paid pages into slides, handouts or an LMS needs written permission first (see below).
Worked example
Mapping the session to your own outcomes
Programmes usually need to show where a session sits in their curriculum. This example maps the 30-minute session, run with the prehospital stroke case, to the kind of outcome statements most medical, nursing and paramedic programmes contain. Replace the left-hand column with the wording and codes from your own programme document.
| Your programme outcome (example wording) | Where the session covers it | Evidence you could collect |
|---|---|---|
| Carries out a structured assessment of an acutely unwell patient | Stage 1: ABCDE assessment and first priorities | Group priority list; observer notes |
| Recognises time-critical conditions and acts within agreed timeframes | Stage 1–2: time last known well, glucose check, destination | Facilitator question during the escalation call |
| Communicates clinical information using a structured tool | Stage 2 and the repeat: SBAR pre-alert and handover | Your own SBAR checklist, completed by the observer |
| Works effectively within a multiprofessional team | Role allocation and rotation | Debrief reflection |
| Reflects on practice and identifies learning needs | Minutes 25–30: one change for the next shift | Learner's written reflection |
Where your programme follows a published framework, map to that document directly: for example the GMC's Outcomes for graduates, the NMC's Future nurse standards or the HCPC's paramedic Standards of proficiency in the UK, or your accrediting body's competencies in the US. The Ship Doctor has not been mapped to, endorsed or accredited by any of these bodies; the mapping is yours to make and own.
Book permissions
Ask about using a book with a cohort
A retail PDF is licensed to one person. If you want to project pages in class, print a chapter for a skills day, put a book on your LMS or buy copies for a cohort, tell us what you have in mind. Dr Osolika replies personally with what can be agreed, and in writing before any wider use starts.
- Free pages and "Look inside" previews can be linked to without asking.
- Nothing beyond individual use is offered by default; each permission is scoped by book, learner numbers, duration and how it will be used.
- There is no learner dashboard, seat management or certificate.
Please do not include any patient information.
Your details are used only to reply. See the privacy policy. Want an app pilot or a broader conversation instead? Use the team pilot enquiry on the Teams page.
Thank you — your enquiry has been sent
Dr Osolika will reply to the work email you gave. In the meantime you can run the free session with any of the free cases.
Teaching a remote, maritime or offshore team instead?
The operator page has a shipboard drill, notes on low-connectivity use and a handover structure for transfers.