College offering wilderness first aid course
Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Apr 20/01) - Safety comes first in Inuvik if you are gauging by the level of interest being expressed for an upcoming course.
The local campus of Aurora College will be offering the Standard Wilderness First Aid Course, and Shauna MacKay, co-ordinator of community education, said on Tuesday she's fielded a lot of calls.
She said one reason is that this type of course is often recommended by oil and gas firms, especially for seismic work, where crews are out on the land.
"It goes beyond standard first aid," MacKay explained.
"The regular sort of standard and emergency first aid applies to an urban setting, where you stabilize a person and you're calling the ambulance to come. (When) you're out on the land, often times you're going to have to transport this person, and medical attention isn't anywhere nearby -- so definitely applicable to a lot of the work that's going on in the area right now."
A maximum of 12 students will take part in the course, which occurs over two weekends, from May 4-13. The registration deadline is tomorrow (Friday).
The instructor will be Jessica Simon, from Yukon College Health and Safety.
MacKay said there's a big emphasis on simulations during the course, and that on the last day there will be a practical exercise outside.
