DEEP in dense, dry forest students have to search and rescue their case study.
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This is wilderness training for Australian Catholic University’s third-year paramedic students – the only simulated bush training of its kind in Australia.
Students work in teams of seven or eight armed with a map, grid reference compass and medical equipment to find and treat their designated mannequin in the Wombat State Forest.
Their patient case could be a motorcyclist who has come off his bike, a lost intoxicated and diabetic male who has wandered from his camp site, a snake bite victim or lost camper with hyperthermia or hypothermia.
ACU paramedicine senior lecturer and program coordinator Helen Webb said students gained such valuable experience beyond the classroom walls and usual clinical training hours.
“They get an idea of what it’s like working in remote bush land that they don’t get when they ride with paramedics,” Ms Webb said. "They experience what it’s like to be a team leader – students each take turns to lead – they have experience in teamwork and in communication.”
The Diggers Trail exercise is endorsed by Ambulance Victoria as clinical practice that counts toward the 360 hours each student must serve to complete their course, complementing the experience they gain riding with paramedic teams.
This trail exercise is in its fifth year. The latest student batch undertook the two-day simulation last week. Ms Webb said the exercise’s safety record was superb – the worst on-course injury recorded was a bad blister.
Ms Webb is also an army captain, teaching disaster management, works closely with the State Emergency Service and other key search and rescue bodies for exercise preparation. Students also prepare extensively in the classroom before taking on bush navigation.
She said trauma and medical emergencies in bush land were more common than one might think, especially with the summer holiday season approaching and more campers out in force.
The course aims to prepare students for situations that occur in areas like as regional and remote Victoria, where most ACU paramedic graduates start work.