84
|
FALL 2013
It was a great day
to be diving at the
lake-
until a panicked diver ran up to report a
missing buddy. A group of dive professionals were nearby,
and they hastily entered the water. Several lines of bubbles
moved away from shore in random patterns. A short time
later, Sheri and Jill, a pair of dive instructors, surfaced with
Jimmy, an unresponsive, 240-pound diver. They towed him to
the dock, where they fumbled their way through removing his
equipment and theirs; after a few false starts they managed to
get the large, limp diver out of the water.
Once the two instructors had the man on the dock they
began CPR. Sheri walked quickly up the hill to the parking lot to
retrieve the oxygen unit, the first aid kit and emergency phone.
To her dismay the van was locked; she ran back down the hill
and began rifling through her colleagues’ backpacks to find the
keys to the van. She found a cell phone and placed a haphazard
call to emergency medical services (EMS). At this point Jill was
exhausted from performing CPR alone since the time they got
Jimmy out of the water. She began yelling at Sheri, ordering her
to move faster and to come help. Sheri’s reply was thick with
frustration and colorful language.
Sheri found the keys, ran back up the hill and acquired the
emergency equipment from the van. She made it back down
the hill and onto the dock where she flopped to her knees,
opened the oxygen unit and stared blankly at its parts — the
unit had been disassembled in a rescue class the previous week.
Jill saw Sheri freeze up and asked her to take over CPR. Jill set
up the oxygen unit and administered supplemental oxygen to
Jimmy. At about that time some of Sheri and Jill’s colleagues
surfaced and asked what was happening. Twenty-four minutes
had elapsed since Jimmy’s buddy asked for help; Sheri and Jill
were depleted, fatigued, frustrated and desperate for relief.
“Time! End scenario! End scenario!” bellowed their
evaluator. It was a drill — an in-service training scenario
— but you wouldn’t know it by the reactions of the two
emotional instructors. Jill was shaking and visibly angry.
Sheri cried and immediately got defensive. Everybody was
aware it was a training exercise, but it was this group’s first
full-blown emergency simulation, and it featured many of the
complexities of a real incident. Gone was the modular training
familiar to students in CPR, oxygen provider and first aid
classes. In its place were confounders including sand, wetness,
adrenaline, sweat, emotions, wetsuits, confusion, shouting and
disorder — the true benefits of realistic training scenarios.
The Need
In-service training is on-the-job education or skills development
designed to improve staff members’ capabilities. Its importance
for dive professionals cannot be overemphasized. Although this
type of training is most commonly associated with police forces,
EMS crews and lifeguards, recreational industries including
snow sports and whitewater paddle sports practice it as well.
The risks inherent to scuba diving mean dive professionals
may be called on to act with competence, proficiency and
professionalism when an incident occurs.
Dive professionals attend training-agency meetings and
trade shows, and they take courses to maintain their CPR, first
aid and oxygen provider credentials every two years. Although
these are all important aspects of their continuing education,
meetings and courses cannot fully prepare people for situations
that require split-second decisions in stressful circumstances
— circumstances such as kneeling, sopping-wet, over an
unresponsive diver in heavy seas while dive buddies are crying
hysterically. That’s where realistic training comes in.
Who Should Do It?
In-service emergency training should be mandatory for all staff
who supervise or lead divers at dive centers, resorts, charter
operations, educational institutions, public-safety departments
or commercial-diving companies. This includes teaching
assistants, assistant instructors, divemasters, dive control
specialists, instructors, instructor trainers and course directors.
Dive professionals aren’t the only links in an injured diver’s
chain of care, and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. At
any given dive site there are other people who would play a part
in an emergency plan’s execution. Coordinate training exercises
with these associated parties, which include pool staff, dive-site
personnel and boat crews. Dive professionals should contact the
aquatics director of the pool where they train and discuss their
interest in creating a coordinated emergency plan for scuba
activities that take place in the pool. The plan should be tested
Simulations for
Dive
Professionals
Emergency
B y T e c C l a r k
