Airway management is an important skill for all medical trainees to practice, and a unique training event at the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine (ICOM) provided an opportunity for student physicians to do just that.

Co-hosted by ICOM’s Anesthesia Interest Group and Emergency Medicine Club, ICOM’s Advanced Airway Event allowed medical students to practice various airway management techniques. Rotating through stations, students executed a number of medical procedures used in airway management — from bag-valve-mask ventilation to cricothyrotomy.

“This is important because both emergency medicine doctors and anesthesiologists have to really make sure they know how to deal with an airway, so an event like this really allows students to see different forms of how to take control of an airway,” said Student Doctor Mohammad Abuakar, a third-year student at ICOM and President of ICOM’s Emergency Medicine Club.

Airway management is the practice of evaluating, planning, and using a wide array of medical procedures and devices for the purpose of maintaining or restoring an individual’s ventilation, or breathing. It is an essential skill for clinicians and airway management scenarios can range from basic and non-invasive to advanced, which uses more invasive and specialized techniques.

“Students learn best when they do hands-on activities and this is the embellishment of that,” said Dr. Michael Gold, an anesthesiologist and adjunct faculty member at ICOM.

Approximately 70 student physicians from ICOM participated in the event, as well as more than 20 students from Boise State University’s Respiratory Care program. Additionally, representatives from several medical device companies brought state-of-the-art airway management equipment for students to use.