Increasing my Emergency medicine skills
As a former Royal Military Police Close Protection specialist, Royal Marines Commando Officer and safety, security, and resilience team advisor, I've built up a broad knowledge of medical emergency planning for remote, austere and security-challenged environments, however, this training pushed, expanded, and challenged me - it was fantastic!
Having since left that world, and now as a consultant to the media, NGO and business communities - I decided I wanted to be offer even more depth in this crucial (and sometimes overlooked) area.
How I got on with my emergency medicine training in 2017.
My search for Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) providers started with the Australasian registry of EMT (AREMT) - this is one of the better-known registries that are able to validate your skills and quantify your knowledge. This led me to PPA - a medical training provider based in Denmark, led by Nick, a former close protection Team Leader with a hugely impressive CV of medical experience (which was bought out during the course in vignettes to add real life relevance to the learning).
Considering the cost of a Medicine in Remote Area (MIRA) course is close to £1000 for 5 days - this was around £1100 for 10 days learning and included 3 certificates (one from the trauma department of a highly regarded University), accommodation and a clinical attachment (not including flights and food) - I signed up without hesitation. This is amazing value for money.
5 of turned up at the training centre and set about getting to know each other over coffee. Mostly ex-military of different countries; Brits, Australians, Germans and Danish, we were now united by a common passion for emergency medicine in challenging environments.
The course started in earnest with theory on anatomy, physiology and pharmacology, which would become increasingly more relevant as we learnt to remedy the range of issues we might encounter. Our instructor, Lars – a highly knowledgeable German Army paramedic, enthusiastically brought the material to life through his own experiences.
After a few days of classroom-based theory, the course moves into more trauma-focused training bringing practical sessions in with it. Each day now begins with taking vitals and practicing the primary survey (that would become increasingly more detailed as the course progressed). We’d soon be learning how to deliver fluids intravenously and intraosseously (through the bone), how to remedy a tension pneumothorax and how to administer different types of airways to an unconscious casualty.
Practicing my intubation skills, kindly taken by Simon Buxton
Another student wrapped up like a burrito, but looking incredibly happy with the experience!
The course culminates in 2 days of scenario training using live actors and hyper-realistic dummies with the full gamut of injuries that we’d been taught to deal with; the 5 of us hungry to practice our new skills!
After a demanding 10 days, we’re exhausted but ecstatic; sitting at the airport – our hands and fingernails stained with fake blood; we’re enjoying a beer and laughing over the how we’d all reacted throughout the various scenarios. Hours later we’d be falling asleep on our flights and returning to ‘normality’ to continue our lifelong learning as fresh-faced first responders.
The final exercise would test our new skills and abilities in a highly realistic disaster scenario
