Hi guys, I've been training first aid for a number of years now, my background being a lot of practical experience, FaW since before there was an FAW (I'm sure back in the '60s it was called something else?), initially a T the T course, more recently PTLLS 3, then 4.  So far so good.

I've recently been asked to prepare and present a short course for teachers, child care assistants, etc, on the use of Epi-pens. 

I have been talking about and explaining their use for years, using an Epi-pen trainer and the demo clip on the DVD supplied by the manufacurers (all of 45 seconds).  Do I need any specific course or qualification to run a stand alone Epi-pen course?  Any suggestions as to length of the course, or content - clearly, if I'm charging for a course, I want the learners and clients to feel they've got value for money.  An explanation of anaphylaxis, cause, effect, and treatment is required, but I'd be struggling to extend that much more than half an hour. 

Suggestions please?

Ian

Same here

Causes, recognition, action without epipen, action with epipen, practice epipen, then on to worst case scenario with a CPR refresher and recovery position. Nice gentle but active 3-hour session



Simples!!!





(makes with the meerkat noise)

If anyone is teaching paeds courses and you have a video player, Anaphylaxis Campaign are virtually giving away their video (the DVD is about £18) at £1.50 each. I use bits of it a lot on my courses. It described what anaphylaxis is, stories from children and their parents describing exactly what happened when they had a reaction - also emphasises that children often have respitarory s/s rather than shock s/s (at last!) and shows how to use epi-pens. very good video/DVD.

Further to this discussion, where oh where can I obtain training Epi-pens from?

I tried a few places on t'internet, most never replied, some don't seem to exist any more.

Try Ebay they have shops on there which sell the training units or you can do a course on the anaphylaxis campaign website and they give you a trainers pack for healthcare trainers who deliver courses.

We retain all our Expired EpiPens and when we have our EpiPen refresher courses we have the chance to "fire" (supervised) a real one into a peice of fruit. This also highlighted the high risk of a needle stick injury as people could actually see the needle protruding. Our newbies find this experience very useful.

Although the discarded expired EpiPens are then placed into the Sharps Bin for disposal it is emphasised that these would normally go with the patient to hospital.

I found a big difference in using a Training Pen to the real thing - the real thing seems to fire with a much greater noise & thump.

Oh.... and the fruit was safely discarded of as well before any asks!

PHECTA

The real Epipens are NOT used during the actual training - only Trainng EpiPens are used, Sorry I should have made this clear. The real expired Epipens are only "fired" into some fruit if a candidate wishes to afterwards and only then under supervision. Any fired Epipens are disposed off in a Sharps Bin.

Just to go on from PHECTAs post. We have expended Epipens (needle and contents removed) which we use to show delegates what they look like, we also have a number of training pens we let the delegates use.



On Friday the trainer heard a sound emanating from his kit box (a black and Decker type workman's box on wheels - highly recommend them btw). He opened it to find his 'show pen' had come apart. The spring despite being expended still has a significant amount of grunt left in it and the glue which holds the casing together had presumably disintegrated allowing the spring to fully unwind ejecting the end of the pen.



I can see how that incident referred to can happen - a lesson for us all.



Paul

I recall seeing this mentioned in the Resuscitation Guidelines if you look up Epi pen there it does not stipulate the training requirement of the Trainer for Epi Pen from memory which is slipping I think it uses words such as a 'competent person'.



If you look at the guidelines yourself that will put your mind at ease, dont forget to include both anapen and epi pen, most of the rest of the advice here has been very useful also

You can now obtain epi-pen training units on Amazon! They're not very expensive.