Saturday, February 7, 2015

Choosing Hyperbaric Chamber Training Courses

By Janine Hughes


It was not long ago that research began to show the health benefits of patients breathing in pure oxygen at a great pressure than normal. Chambers used for this purpose had been a part of diving operations for some time but had no other purpose. The discovery was made that this treatment increased the oxygen supply to the tissues and organs, accelerating healing. As this therapy becomes more popular, so hyperbaric chamber training courses have been developed to train health care professionals to administer it.

Chambers are situated at a number of hospitals and other treatment centers. Some chambers are designed to accommodate a number of patients at the same time. They have two compartments that decompress and compress independently, allowing a multidisciplinary team to go into and out of the chamber without affecting the treatment of the patients. Each person is provided with oxygen via an individualized delivery system. Other chambers are designed to treat only one patient at a time.

So many different problems have been discovered to benefit from this treatment. It is often used together with other medical and surgical treatments, particularly when they have not been that successful. Wounds that do not heal, thermal burns and crush injuries are just some of the conditions that respond well to treatment. A trained physician determines the safest dose and amount of time necessary to treat each condition.

A variety of courses are available, some associated with a particular hospital and others with organizations connected with promoting this type of therapy. It is vitally important to choose a course that is suitably accredited and formulated by those with the right credentials and experience. Cost, length and course content will obviously also play a part in making a decision as to which course to do.

Online courses provide a valuable means of achieving further education today for those who may be unable to physically attend a course. One of the fears people have when it comes to taking online courses is of not receiving enough help and having to battle alone to complete assignments. In fact, most of the online courses available today are very interactive and offer easy access to instructors.

A basic course should cover all the physical aspects of this field of medicine, patient care, oxygen toxicity, how chambers work, contraindications, side effects and more. Significant focus should be given to the clinical aspects of therapy. A course should always offer a good balance between theory and practice and as many learning aids as possible such slides and videos should be utilized.

These courses may cover different content and be more basic or advanced according to the type of health professional being trained. Physicians will require different courses to nurses and technologists to respiratory therapists. The certification offered also varies according to the type of course completed.

This type of treatment is proving to be successful, particularly when other methods of treatment are failing. Treatment protocols are being established and more physicians are now trained to prescribe a particular protocol to treat a specific problem. The team then administers the dosage strictly according to this protocol. This therapy needs to be administered with care to avoid toxic side effects and in the hands of a trained team therapy is safe and effective.




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