Fundamental Critical Care Support: Obstetrics

Fundamental Critical Care Support: Obstetrics is organized by UC San Diego School of Medicine, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and will be held from Oct 16 - 17, 2026 at T. Denny Sanford Medical Education and Telemedicine Center, La Jolla, California, United States of America.

Description:
The Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at UC San Diego Health, proudly offers the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Fundamental Critical Care Support: Obstetrics (FCCS: OB) course. This comprehensive, evidence-based program delivers high-impact, multidisciplinary education designed to enhance the knowledge, skills, and clinical confidence of healthcare professionals caring for critically ill or injured pregnant and postpartum patients. Through expert-led instruction, case-based learning, simulations, and practical frameworks aligned with continuing medical education (CME) standards, participants gain essential competencies to improve maternal safety and outcomes across diverse care settings.  This is a multi-disciplinary course welcoming learners from a variety of backgrounds, to include physicians, nurses, advanced practice providers, midwives, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and others.

Lecture Topics Include:

• Physiologic Changes During Pregnancy
• Airway Management in the Pregnant Patient
• Preeclampsia/Eclampsia
• Maternal Cardiac Arrest
• Obstetric Hemorrhage
• Sepsis in Pregnancy
• Cardiac Conditions in Pregnancy
• Fetal Evaluation and Fetal Concerns in the Seriously Ill Pregnant Patient
• Management of Delivery and Newborn
• Thromboembolic Disease and Pregnancy
• Mechanical Ventilation in Pregnancy
• Pregnancy-related AKI
• Transport of the Critically Ill Pregnant Patient
• Nonobstetric Surgical Diseases in the Pregnant Patient
• Neurocritical Care in Pregnancy

Skills Stations Include:

• Management of Severe Preeclampsia and Eclampsia
• Postpartum Hemorrhage
• Cardiopulmonary Arrest in Pregnancy
• Mechanical Ventilation
• Trauma

Objectives
Upon completion of this activity, learners should be able to:

1. Analyze key assessment needs for critically ill pregnant patients using structured evaluation tools and clinical judgment.
2. Apply knowledge of pregnancy-related physiologic changes to interpret clinical findings and adjust management strategies.
3. Manage specific maternal obstetric and medical conditions by selecting and initiating evidence-based treatments.
4. Demonstrate optimal maternal CPR and airway management techniques in simulated scenarios involving critically ill pregnant patients.
5. Complete a fetal assessment, determine indications for delivery, and apply guideline-based delivery and immediate neonatal management procedures.
6. Identify situations requiring expert consultation or patient transfer and execute the appropriate processes to ensure safe and timely transfer of pregnant patients.