First Aid Training
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Safety Talk - May 2008 |
 Apart from hardy types who dive all year round, the approach of the new diving season is the time of year for divers to brush the dust off regulators and shake out the various furry animals who have spent the winter nesting in our dry suits.Seriously however, the message that we need to have our kit in good working order and our diving skills practiced and up-to-date is not a new one to most of our members. Those of us who dive regularly maintain our diving skills through regular practice by going diving. Hopefully for most this is not the case with our rescue skills. Basic Life Support techniques are an integral part of the Diver Training Programme and are repeatedly taught and examined from the Sports Diver grade onwards. Oxygen administration, as first aid for diving casualties, is also widely taught and required for the award of the Dive Leader qualification. However, these skills need to be practiced to be effective. They need to become automatic so that if an incident should occur, vital time is not lost and the rescue stands the greatest chance of being successful. The incident report from 2007 shows that Injury/Illness is the fourth most frequent category of incidents. First Aid for Divers is the only BSAC training which teaches divers to deal with this sort of problem. Looking around any inland diving site, you will see that most dive groups have oxygen equipment and hopefully someone who knows how to use it. What is less obvious is how many have someone trained in first aid - in the coming year we should aspire to have a trained first aider in every diving group. Andy Procter NDC Rescue Skills Advisor |
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Basic Skills BSAC Diver Training builds rescue skills into training from the very early stages with CBL and suface diver support at Ocean Diver and in-water resuscitation and on-land CPR at Sport Diver level. As Andy identifies above, these skills can deteriorate with time and so individuals and clubs should undertake refresher training. One way to achieve this and learn a valuable skill at the same time is to follow the O2 Course that forms part of Dive Leader. Management Skills Actual management of diving incidents requires the contribution of all members of a diving party. The primary objective is preventing an incident in the first place and so everyone preparing properly to dive will help minimise the risks. The Practical Rescue Management (PRM) course emphasises this still further as well as looking at how to utilise the resources available to you. As a diver you can assist the Dive Manager by gaining additional skills that they would be able to call on should an unfortunate incident occur. Expecting just one person to have every single skill to cope is not the best use of resources, especially should the one person with the skills be the unfortunate casualty. Support Skills Apart from O2 and PRM courses already mentioned, the other courses in the rescue skills suite all have a valuable contribution they can make to any rescue situation. First Aid for Divers not only covers the non-resuscitation first aid skills divers may require but also practices improvising with diving equipment for coping in those out of the way places we tend to frequent. Lifesaver and Advanced Lifesaver build on rescue skills taught in DTP but then add skills such as throwing ropes and buoyant objects. For those trips to even more remote locations, the skills taught on the Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) course should be a must for some members of the trip. Other skills such as Marine Radio licence can be equally valuable. |
Think SAFE - Dive SAFE
Any suggestions for further items for inclusion would be welcome and can be made to divesafe@bsac.com
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Register for Updates To make sure you recieve a direct notification of each months topic for SAFETY TALK as well as other information about important BSAC changes, new BSAC services and BSAC benefits please register for the BSAC MAILING LIST |
Page last modified: 18th Jun 2008 - 11:49:28