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FALL 2012
FROM THE SAFETY STOP
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P E R S P E C T I V E S
D
AN® enhances dive safety
through education and
training. Our programs
and services are diverse
and reach divers, nondivers and
health-care professionals. The wide
range of our offerings springs from
our commitment to elevate the
knowledge and skills of divers and the
medical providers who treat them.
CPR and first-aid guidelines
changed significantly in the fall
of 2010, when the International
Liaison Committee on Resuscitation/
American Heart Association (ILCOR/
AHA) published guideline updates.
DAN Education embraced this
opportunity to overhaul and update
our entire suite of programs. We
took a holistic approach and rewrote
every program from bottom to top.
Key changes included consolidating
our oxygen courses, reshooting all our training videos (in
digital high definition) and revising our Diving Emergency
Management Provider (DEMP) and Diving First Aid for
Professional Divers courses. We also created new instructor
materials and new multicolored slates.
Our Neurological Assessment and First Aid for Hazardous
Marine Life Injuries (HMLI) courses changed significantly
and are available for divers and nondivers. Neurological
Assessment is appropriate for the whole family; the new
content incorporates stroke and rapid-assessment techniques
for acute neurological injury. Strokes are common, and learning
how to recognize signs of acute injury can expedite access to
emergency care and may minimize the impact of brain injury.
HMLI has expanded and is a great extension of our CPR and
first aid program. With color photos, bonus content and more
information on potentially hazardous organisms, the new books
are a great resource and training guide.
We didn’t stop with the redesign. These programs are also
going digital, enhancing the availability of the materials and
making them exciting and interactive. Knowledge is power,
and accident prevention occurs because people consciously
take steps to avoid mishaps. An
informed and skilled diver becomes a
leader who can make a big difference
in how injuries are prevented and
managed. For more about these new
programs, read “DAN Education:
Then and Now” on Page 26, visit
www.DAN.org/education
or call your
local DAN Instructor.
Every year DAN offers two Diver
Medical Technician (DMT) classes
at our headquarters in Durham, N.C.
Geared toward the emergency medical
services (EMS) community, these
programs provide an introduction to
dive medicine, invasive emergency
interventions and hyperbaric-chamber
operations. We recently added DMT
continuing education courses to
include advanced cardiac life support
and advanced medical life support
courses.
DAN’s educational goals for health-care professionals are
aimed at improving the care injured divers receive. Twice
a year we conduct continuing medical education courses at
the physician level that provide attendees with up-to-date
information on the research and practice of diving and
hyperbaric medicine. In October we held our 72nd course,
which makes this one of the longest-running programs in
the industry.
DAN expanded its reach in the medical community in
August by sponsoring the Science of Wound Care, Diving
and Hyperbaric Medicine Conference in Palm Beach, Fla.
In collaboration with Wound Care Education Partners, we
included an interactive precourse on decompression illness
and addressed a variety of topics in the field of hyperbaric
medicine and wound care. With the success of this program
we are already working on our next event.
Safety is a consequence of education. We encourage you
to take a DAN class or add them to the courses you teach.
Take a step toward safety, and learn the skills that could
make a difference — the life you improve or save may be
your own.
AD
Safer Diving Through Education
B y N i c k B i r d , M . d . , M M M