XXXVIII^th Edinburgh
Anaesthesia Festival
19-21 August 2026

Workshops 2026

This year we offer two workshops:

1. Leadership workshop (Thursday morning)
2. Practical regional anaesthesia and vascular access workshop (Friday morning)

The workshops takes place on the 2nd and 3rd day of EAF 25, before the main meeting starts – Thursday 20 and Friday 21 August from 8.00 – 9.30 am. A maximum of 30 delegates is allowed in each workshop.

1) Leadership workshop (Dr Hiba Khaled) Thu 20 Aug 8:00-9:30 (£30)

Leadership When There Are No Easy Answers

Anaesthetic training prepares you exceptionally well for clinical complexity. But at some point, every trainee and consultant hits a different kind of problem — the difficult team dynamic, the department that's stuck, the situation where more expertise isn't the answer and yet everyone is looking to you to have one.

No one really teaches you how to navigate that.

This workshop draws on Adaptive Leadership, a body of work developed at Harvard University, to help you build the capacity to lead from wherever you are, not just from the top. Whether you're a trainee who feels you have no authority to lead, or a consultant who's realised that authority alone doesn't solve the hard problems, this session offers a new way of seeing the challenges you already face.

You'll leave with more language, more confidence, and more capacity to lead yourself and your team through the challenges that sit beyond clinical expertise.

2) Regional workshop (Dr Fabian Cook) Fri 21 Aug 8:00-9:30 (£60)

Regional stations covering plan A blocks and needling techniques with experienced clinicians at each station for hands on experience and teaching

• Upper limb orthopaedics:
  Discussion with experts on when to use blocks for common upper limb surgeries from the shoulder to the hand. Practice scanning plan A blocks: Interscalene and axillary
• Lower Limb Orthopaedics:
  Discussion with experts on when to use blocks for common lower limb procedures from the thigh to the foot. Practice scanning plan A blocks: Femoral, adductor canal and popliteal
• Trunk:
  ESP/serratus anterior +/- abdominal wall blocks
• Phantom Needling:
  Practice needling skills on our state-of-the-art phantoms that mimic different blocks using NRfit needles. NRfit catheter kits available for familiarisation

Learning Objectives for the Workshop:

• Improve knowledge and understanding of common blocks performed for common procedures on their respective lists with our summary handout and Q&A with our experts
• Hands-on guided experience scanning for the plan A block associated with the respective lists
• Practice and enhancement of needling skills with our phantoms
• Acquire or improve the skill of out-of-plane dynamic scanning for vascular access
• For those with paediatric interests, there is also the opportunity to chat about paediatric ists/blocks with our expert faculty