Sydney HEMS: Registrars Reflect

Posted on November 12, 2025 by Hamish Bush

Two of our registrars Shannon and Jenny talk about their experiences in the first year at Sydney HEMS. Hear two different takes on the the job, their insights into more challenging missions, and tips for the newer registrars just starting. This will be of particular interest to our newer team members, and for anyone considering a career at Sydney HEMS or in aeromedical retrieval medicine.

Click the link to watch Jenny and Shannon on our Sydney Hems YouTube Channel, or watch below.

If you like these videos, you might also enjoy Prehospital care: lessons for life over at Life in the Fast Lane, or below.

You can also check out the free eBook 101 Lessons from a Year at Sydney HEMS, which exists as a series of 7 of blog posts here, or the reflections by former registrar Robbie Lloyd here at the Sydney HEMS blog.

Posted in General PH&RM, training | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

HEMS Debrief – Cardiac Arrest Focus. #12, Dr Per Olave (PO) Berve

Posted on October 31, 2025 by samuelbulford01gmailcom

Hello, and welcome back to the Sydney HEMS debrief podcast. This is our focused series on cardiac arrest – now up to episode 12.
 
Today we have part one of two in conversation with Dr PO Berve from Norway. PO is an Anaesthetist and Pre-Hospital physician from Oslo where he works on the physician response car of the region. PO’s research has been absolutely fundamental to the modern understanding of CPR physiology and the haemodynamics of the arrested patient, and his work is rightly lauded as critical in the practice of physiology-guided resuscitation. 

Have you ever wondered what happens during one chest compression? In this episode, Nat deep-dives with PO into the physiology of the arrested patient – specifically what happens, or what should happen, during one perfect chest compression. It’s a fascinating conversation not to be missed by anyone with an interest in performing high quality resuscitation tailored to a specific patient. 

Great news: in addition to apple podcasts, we are now on Spotify!

Check out PO’s part one episode here:

Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/hems-debrief-cardiac-arrest-focus-12-dr-per-olave-po-berve/id602038154?i=1000733226017

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Z0YWTSG5TngKDN1rhEaXo?si=96b1ffc01e0245c8

Part two coming soon!

Posted in General PH&RM, Podcasts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Education Day – Wednesday 5th November, 2025

Posted on October 29, 2025 by KylieAiliuua
Posted in General PH&RM | Tagged | Leave a comment

Retrieval services in the outback

Posted on October 24, 2025 by Hamish Bush

Sydney HEMS were fortunate to have a Dr. Dan Adams, Director of the Central Australian Retrieval Service, present on his experience in the Red Centre.

The Central Australian Retrieval Service, based in Alice Springs, certainly has some differences from our Sydney based HEMS services. The patients, pathology and environment pose some unique challenges to our central Australian colleagues, we were glued to our seats hearing how you brought the highest level of care to these remote and demanding clinical situations. Dan guides us through the design of their service, and the logistics of serving a catchment with a diameter over 1200km, covering over a million square kilometers!

Thank you Dan for sharing your experiences and expertise!


Posted in General PH&RM | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Clinical Governance Day – Wednesday 22nd October, 2025

Posted on October 15, 2025 by KylieAiliuua
Posted in General PH&RM | Tagged | Leave a comment

Education Day – Wednesday 8th October, 2025

Posted on October 3, 2025 by KylieAiliuua
Posted in General PH&RM | Tagged | Leave a comment

ITIM Prehospital Trauma Evening – 29th October 2025

Posted on September 26, 2025 by KylieAiliuua
Prehospital Trauma Evening – OCT2025Download
Posted in General PH&RM | Leave a comment

Should HAVL Be Used “Universally”?

Posted on September 19, 2025 by Dr Richard McQuillan

At Greater Sydney Area HEMS, we carry a hyper-angulated (D-blade) option for our C-MAC video laryngoscope, but in our inter-hospital equipment bag. This means that it is not necessarily immediately to hand for pre-hospital missions (in part to avoid accidental mix-ups with the primary intubation kit), although can be utilised with some forethought if required.

An archive of previous airway posts can be found on the Airway Registry section of this site. Additionally, C-MAC video recordings for educational purposes can be found on the Airway Registry Vimeo channel.

Greater Sydney Area HEMS does not currently utilise or support the ‘universal’ use of hyper-acute video laryngoscopy (HAVL). From an organisational point of view, it can be healthy to question the status quo and explore alternative ways of working. We were therefore thrilled that Dr Nicholas Chrimes joined us at a recent Education Day to deliver an excellent HAVL workshop and interactive talk. Dr Chrimes is a Consultant Anaesthetist in Melbourne who wears multiple hats, including being a co-founder of the Safe Airway Society, and creator of the Vortex Approach to airway management. We particularly applaud his enthusiasm to engage with a group of arguable sceptics!

Below you can find a recording of the interactive talk, highlights from the workshop, and related resources.

Additional resources related to the HAVL can be found here: http://www.vortexapproach.org/resources/havl

Posted in Airway, Airway Registry, Interhospital | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Clinical Governance Day – Wednesday 24th September 2025

Posted on September 15, 2025 by KylieAiliuua
Posted in General PH&RM | Tagged | Leave a comment

HEMS Debrief – Cardiac Arrest Focus. #11, Dr Úna Nic Ionmhain

Posted on September 15, 2025 by samuelbulford01gmailcom

Welcome back to the Sydney HEMS debrief. We are up to episode 11!

Today, we are pivoting towards toxicology. Specifically, we discuss some of the more common toxidromes encountered pre-hospitally, how they cause cardiac arrest, and what providers – in particular pre-hospital providers – may do in order to best resuscitate these patients.

In addition to some broader and very applicable learning themes pertinent to any toxidrome, we discuss

  • Beta-blockers
  • Calcium channel blockers
  • Amitriptyline
  • Quetiapine
  • …and more

Of course we are not doing discussing this alone. We are so luck to be joined today by a clinical toxicologist, Dr Úna.

Dr Úna Nic Ionmhain graduated from Trinity College Dublin, and subsequently trained in Emergency Medicine in Perth. She completed a Pre Hospital and Retrieval Medicine year with CareFlight NSW as well as a poisons fellowship. She is now a staff specialist FACEM at Liverpool Hospital NSW, and a clinical toxicologist with the NSW Poisons Information Centre. She has an academic interest in HIET in toxicology for cardiogenic shock, which was the focus of her masters thesis, and is a passionate educator with a particular interest in cardiotoxicity.

We sure hope you enjoy this episode, and until next time, we hope you have a great week.

Posted in General PH&RM, Podcasts | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment