First Aid, Wilderness

OEC Refresher: Pinecrest & Lake Alpine Ski Patrols

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Date: Saturday September 27, 2008, 8:30 to 5

Location: Piedmont Adult School. Room to be announced.

Registration: Advance enrollment required: email Steve Donelan. Visiting patrollers welcome: Include your name, patrol, and NSP number in your message.

Contact: Steve Donelan, e-mail - donelan@mindspring.com .

Bring: OEC card, completed open book test from Ski Patrol Magazine (summer issue), patrol pack, ski poles, CPR pocket mask (to use in oxygen administration), and lunch. Also bring stethoscope and blood pressure cuff if you have them.

Preparation: Complete the OEC Study Guide, printed in the summer issue of Ski Patrol Magazine. Also check www.OECzone.com for online study and review tools, including videos of skills.

Study Guide online : Don't have the magazine? No problem. Go to the National Ski Patrol web site (www.nsp.org) and you will find the refresher study guide in pdf format, so you can download it and print it out.

Instructors: Don't forget to e-mail me your preferences for skills station and scenario station assignments (1st & 2nd choices).

Directions: In Piedmont, get on Oakland Avenue going East. From 580, it's the Oakland Ave./Harrison St. exit. Go up and down hills, accross Grand Ave. (traffic lights), then uphill again to the traffic light hanging over the center of the street (Hillside Avenue). Turn right on Hillside, and the first cluster of large buildings on your right is Piedmont School. Park on the street. I will add directions to the room as soon as it is assigned.

Need CPR?
I now teach CPR at and recommend the San Francisco Paramedic Association: www.sfparamedics.org. They are just a few blocks from the Montgomery Street BART station. We teach the new American Heart Association courses, which are a great improvement. You practice each component of a skill right along with the video, then put them all together. This method trains you much more effectively and in less time than the old courses did. Equivalent ARC courses are nearly twice as long because they include a lot of talk and are less efficiently designed. SFPA Instructors are all experienced paramedics and EMT's, and they know the science behind CPR as well as how it works in real life. Students who have taken CPR courses from other organizations always tell us that the SFPA courses are much better. You need BLS-HCP, which is 4 hours long. If your current card has not expired, you can sign up for a BLS-HCP Review course, which is about 3 hours long.

Plan

In the morning, we will have an hour of presentations, then rotate through skills stations.
While we eat lunch together, we will go over the open book study test and discuss the answers.
In the afternoon, we will rotate through scenario stations, which will be very realistic.
After the scenarios, patrollers fill out confidential evaluations of the refresher and turn them in with refresher completion records.
Steve will sign OEC cards and refresher completion acknowledgements.
Finally, we will give participants the opportunity to make public comments on the refresher before closing.
After the refresher, we will have a brief patrol meeting.

Requirements
To get credit for the refresher, you must:

Be currently registered as a National Ski Patroller or candidate, with your dues for the upcoming season paid (patrol treasurers should be there).
Turn in your completed open book study questions when you arrive.
Be checked off at all the basic skills stations.
Be checked off at all the scenario stations, including at least one complete patient assessment.

CPR certification
In order to patrol, you must re-certify in CPR every year - the NSP does not recognize 2-year certification periods. Certification must be in Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers (BLS-HCP), also known as CPR for Professional Rescuers, which includes adult, child, and infant skills for a single rescuer, two-rescuer adult and infant CPR, and use of the pocket CPR mask and Bag Valve Mask. American Heart Association, American Red Cross, American Safety & Health Institute, and National Safety Council all offer courses that meet these requirements.

Verifying CPR certification
For Pinecrest and Lake Alpine patrollers, if you have already re-certified in CPR and show us your card during check-in, we will note it on the roster. Otherwise, you must show your PD proof of re-certification before patrolling.

SAM splints
I will have SAM splints available for those who need to buy them, at wholesale cost plus shipping - $10 each. Bring exact change for the number you need.

Patients for scenarios
We need patients for the afternoon scenarios (12 noon to 4:30). Let me know if you can provide friends or family. Kids welcome if they are old enough to remember and act out their roles. Moulage experts from my wilderness program will coach them and apply accident makeup. Make sure they bring or wear old clothes, because the makeup is messy.

Schedule

8:30 Check in and turn in completed study questions (required for admission to refresher)

9:00 Presentations

10:15 Skills stations

12:30 Working lunch: discussion of the study questions as we eat.   Robert Parkhurst
            Instructors and moulage volunteers prepare scenario stations.
1:30    Scenario stations - first rotation
2:15    Scenario stations - second rotation
3:00    Scenario station - third rotation
3:45    Scenario station - fourth rotation
4:30    Convene for comments on refresher by participants, and patrol meetings.
Patrollers fill out evaluations and turn in refresher completion records. Instructors sign OEC cards and completion acknowledgements.
NOTE: PNSP & LANSP patrollers who have not paid their dues must settle with their Treasurer before getting signatures and being entered on the NSP roster.

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Steve Donelan

donelan@mindspring.com
Last update: April 16, 2008