Emergency Care Society come to the rescue at EMS 2022
Paramedic Science students recently had the chance to put their theory into practice after being called upon to apply their expertise to delegates from around the world.
Scandinavian medical company Laerdal, who produce training manikins, reached out for support to help demonstrate their latest equipment at the Emergency Medical Services Congress (EMS 2022). The event was held at Glasgow’s SEC Campus and welcomed 1,500 medical professionals throughout jam-packed three days in May.
Laerdal were pointed in the direction of GCU’s Emergency Care Society, who stepped up to the job by providing six enthusiastic volunteers.
Second year student Scott Paterson gave an insight into what they were involved in. He explained: “The six of us were split up into groups of two and we each got to attend a day of the conference.
Our job was basically to run a competition at Laerdal’s stall where guests carried out CPR compressions on one of their high-tech mannequins. Each person was given a score out of 100 and the winner was given an IPad. So many people came along and it was really enjoyable doing the demonstrations.”
The students involved were also given the chance to soak up the atmosphere and find out more about what life was like as a paramedic outside of the UK.
Scott said: “We all went to talks and demonstrations with renowned doctors and advanced paramedics. One of our lecturers, James Short, was running a class on difficult airways and we managed to see him, which was really cool.
It was particularly great to work with a bunch of different ambulance services from across the world and hear about practices used in places like Amsterdam and Vienna.
I also had a really interesting conversation with lecturers from South Korea, who wanted to know more about Scotland’s education system and how the paramedic course worked here.”
With guests paying upwards of £300 to attend, Scott was delighted to get the whole experience as a volunteer and believes it will benefit him throughout his future career.
He said: “To be honest, I just thought it was amazing we were getting free entry! Everything was just completely relevant; we walked away from every talk with more knowledge, which was exactly what I’d hoped.
It also showed us that we’re exactly where we should be with what we’re getting taught at GCU. Although we’ve not been able to consolidate that practice on placement, we were still able to keep up with the training drills and understand it all.
It was obviously expensive to attend, and not everyone got that opportunity, but I would 100% recommend it to anyone studying Paramedic Science. I’m already planning on going again in future!”
By Ross Clark
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on Twitter