One of the risks of life on a boat that needs to be addressed is that of illness and injury. These issues can occur away from immediate medical care. Training ourselves to become full doctors is out of the question. However, being able to triage a situation to buy time until proper medical care can be accessed becomes essential. Fortunately, this space is well covered and effective training exists. Aimed at adventure leaders the “Wilderness First Responder” course is (typically) a 9 day, 80 hour course aimed to cover many of the medical situations we might (but hope not to) encounter. Here is a syllabus to give you an idea of what these courses cover.
Helen and I have decided to make this our training goal for 2008. This morning I have been looking around for available courses. Most of them seem to be in first half of the year which does not fit our schedule. I guess this is because they’re targeting the training for folks about to take on summer jobs as recreational leaders. But there are some (a schedule) in July and August which we will look more closely at. It would be great if we can go to a venue where we can enjoy our time off and perhaps a day or two around the course.
We may make this a family trip too. For Ben and Sam who will be 18/21 at the time, this training can only be useful. There are indications that they may be able to receive up to 5 college credits for passing this course – need to look into this further. For Ben, who is aspiring more and more to go onto medical college, this may benefit his chances of entry.
More research ahead.
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