The FCCS is a 20-hour-long course intended to impart the basic principles behind action to be taken during the first 24 hours of care given to a critically-ill patient.

The course was designed by theSociety of Critical Care Medicine - SCCM (www.sccm.org), by means of contributions from international experts in the care of critically-ill patients; it also relied on the co-operation of professionals working in nursing and ongoing training. The Sociedad Española de Medicina Intensiva, Crítica y de Unidades Coronarias (SEMICYUC ? Spanish Society of Intensive Care, Critical Care and Coronary Units) (www.semicyuc.org) has acknowledged the value and quality of the FCCS course, co-operating in training instructors and acting as a mediator in requesting authorisation to run each course.

The purpose of the FCCS course is to improve the preparation of doctors not working in intensive-care units for the initial handling of critically-ill patients from the initial contact to their transfer to a specialist in the field. The FCCS course is also intended to better prepare those nurses working in specialist units to act quickly when faced with a sudden deterioration in the condition of a critically-ill patient.

The HOSPITEN Group?s FCCS courses are given by TEACHING STAFF made up of instructors and monitors who are highly experienced in intensive care, along with guest specialists from various branches of medicine, under the tutelage of Professor Dr. Salvador Benito Vales, from the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona. The course directors areDr Jesús-Andrés Álvarez Fernández (jalvarez@hospiten.es), a specialist in Intensive Medicine at Hospiten Rambla (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and Dr Santiago Lubillo Montenegro (slubillo@clinicaroca.com), a specialist in Intensive Medicine at the Hospital Clínica Roca (Las Palmas, Gran Canaria).

 Further information on the FCCS courses is available from the SEMICYUC Secretariat (secretaria@semicyuc.org).