From January 10 to 14, 2011 Ruben Verlangen and Erik van Roon were on Saba and from January 17 to 20, they moved to Saint Eustatius (also known affectionately by the locals as Statia or Statius) where they presented the first week of a 6 week Emergency Medical Care course.
The total course is spread over a period of 2 years.
The roles of the participants were very varied, namely Assistant Nurse, Medical Doctor, Ambulance Driver, Registered Nurse, Licensed Practice Nurse and Bachelor of Nursing. The similarities between the participants is that they engage in both prehospital and hospital emergency situations.
The subjects taught included the introduction of the hourglass model in combination with the ABCDE method. These methods provide the care structure in the approach to all patients in both the assessment and the associated interventions. The techniques were practised on each other, but it was also nice to see that during the week the methods were immediately put into practice and that everyone was really excited about being able to do this. The transfer from theory to practice could not have been better!
The trainers had a very pleasant stay, including the hospitality of both islands and are already looking forward to the second week of the course in April and May this year. In the meantime, the local trainers will work with the subjects learned from week 1 and prepare the participants for the content of week 2.