A group of Sooke grads are moving on to greener pastures after being the first graduating class of the fledgling Emergency Medical Responders (EMR) class for Grade 12 students at Edward Milne Community School.
With support from the Justice Institute of BC, the Ministry of Education and Child Care and B.C. Emergency Health Services, the semester-long EMR program produced 14 graduates, many of whom will be moving on to work in law enforcement, health care or firefighting.
"It's very comprehensive. It's basically an entry-level paramedic course, to my understanding. And we just learned a lot of skills, like how to deal with major bleeding, spinal control, breathing emergencies, respiratory distress, cardiac arrest, many different topics," said Sarah, one of the graduates.
Among the highlights of the course was a mass casualty incident simulation, where the students, joined by firefighters and paramedics, reacted to large-scale trauma. With the help of the professionals, they got to participate in a realistic simulation, complete with crashed vehicles, real equipment, and they even got to drive an ambulance.
"I think having (paramedics and firefighters) here has definitely been greatly beneficial because they also provide a real-world perspective," said Calala, another student. "So we'll do something in the classroom, and then if they're here, they'll say, 'Well, in real life, we might do this because this is actually what we've seen and what will actually improve the patient's condition,' which I think is something that we have here that not a lot of EMR programs maybe do."
At the end of the semester, the students write several paper exams and their article exams: two high-pressure simulations that are typically done in front of an audience of their peers and teachers.
"For my licensing practical trauma exam, I had a patient who fell eight metres from a bypass of a highway with a pretty obvious head injury, some internal bleeding, unstable pelvis, broken femur. Kind of everything that could go wrong went wrong with my patient," said Lily.
Dave Clark, who taught the class, explained there were challenges with getting the needed equipment for the class, and getting timing right to work with volunteers. However, he sees it as a success, and they have another group of students signed up for next year.
"It was great. It was a big team effort, and it worked out really well," said Clark. "These guys learned a lot of awesome real-world skills that they can transfer, hopefully, down the road."
