. . .I'm not trying to be argumentative but there is nothing in a "marine environment" medical course that is more "helpful" than a good land based course gives you, from a first responder perspective. A dive oriented F/A course will not give you more/better info than say, a wilderness F/A course, which is specifically designed to deal with delayed transit concerns. Knowing what to expect from a chamber facility is interesting but no one is going to let an outsider operate a chamber or take the ride with a patient. Jelly fish stings are unique, as are shark bites, but they both follow the basic principles of anaphylixis and avulsion treatment. Yes the marine environment is different than land but so is treating someone stuck in a tree, down a well or under a bus.
It is far better to be proficient in delivering the core interventions comprehensive mainstream courses teach you: CPR/AED, O2 therapy, shock mitigation and the ABCD's of primary care. I would rather someone take a good F/A - CPR course 5 times and get it right than taking 5 different courses. If you have those skills down you simply flex them for whatever environment you are in, but the interventions are still the same. There is no unique "marine" injury that lies outside that. . ..
. . .
Francesea, I guess the question is what you want to achieve as a goal and where you want to spend your free time. If you want to be a diver with solid F/A skills I stand by suggestions that those can best be addressed through a comprehensive mainstream course that offers lots of practice which is maintained on a regular interval. If you want a whole other hobby/vocation and plan to dedicate a lot of time to something unrelated to actually diving then volunteering to become a chamber assistant via the course described by Kev may be in line with that. But what he is suggesting is something completely out of the realm of what most people would apply, most of the time, while actually recreational diving. Someone who was intellectually honest would at least tell you that, which is all I'm trying to do.
But, I've said my piece. I've argued enough with Kev to know it's just an ego fest competition which I'm not interested in. My comments were tailored to what I perceived as your situation in your area. Either way good luck as any interest in F/A is better than none.
Cheers.
DaleC, if the motivation is to get real world clinical practice treating battlefield trauma, then you would to go to a Field Hospital in Afghanistan (or to an inner city Trauma Center in Chicago or South Central Los Angeles for that matter).
Similarly to get real world practice for dive accidents, go to a place where there are a
lot of divers (especially the potential diver accident & triage conditions on the Opening Night of SoCal Lobster Season), get the additional training offered beyond Rescue Diver and consider becoming part of the emergency chain of care as Volunteer Chamber Operations Crew, or perhaps a frontline para-professional first responder on a diveboat as a certified Divemaster.
But if all you want is basic competency and nothing applicably more challenging, then there's nothing wrong with you DaleC, justifying only a re-cert EFR (or Red Cross CPR/First Aid) & refresher Rescue classes for yourself as needed. . .
Or, a boutique water cooler course. Gotcha
Like I said, not a "boutique course". . .but the best most unique and comprehensive non-professional course beyond Rescue Diver for the clinical treatment of dive accidents, with the additional training and hands-on operation of a full size multiplace Recompression Chamber.
DaleC, yes, I am interested in going further with training since I have a Bio degree and have worked in hospitals and in research, so this training is the meeting of my two interests. Plus my kids interest in biomedical engineering also finds some goals in helping improving technology. There appear to be developing a portable, recompression chamber, and I can see a future of having these on boats with far more widespread training as well. This is a fast paced technology field! By the way, I googled the recompression chamber operations for Mass, got a list of hospitals that provide treatment for wound and burn by hyperbaric chamber, but no training opportunities, so still looking.
This portable Recompression Chamber (aka Hyperbaric Stretcher) was field tested with simulated delivery of a patient to the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber:
However, any well prepared expedition liveaboard charter to a remote dive site location should have a permanent deck mounted Recompression Chamber onboard capable of simultaneously treating at least two patients along with a Tender inside and a Hyperbaric Physician Supervising the treatment:
Diving from the MV Windward | Indies Trader