I had an interesting conversation with someone at DAN today. I wanted to challenge several DAN courses and become a Dive emergency specialist. I have been a paramedic for 9 years and was told that I could not ghallenge these courses, if I wanted the DEM or DES certificate I would have to be properly certified through DAN.
Challenging DAN courses
- Thread starter rds912
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Kriterian
Guest
rds912:
What's wrong with that? If I was on a dive boat and hurt, I would obviously take any help I could get from a medical professional. But if I had a choice between two people, I would take someone trained specifically for dive injuries by the company that does nothing else, not a paramedic that would just rather skip it all and get the diplomas to hang on the wall.
This wasn't meant to be a stab at you, or a question of your intentions. I just never understood colleges that allowed people to "challenge" out of a class. The main thing people need is experience, and taking that training is still experience. If you're going to pay for the class, and the right to learn dive specific accident help, why not just take it.
What if there is something you don't know from normal paramedic training that would have helped you save someones life on the boat?
I agree. Good for DAN.
So, if you think that a person from dan is more highly qualified, then why does a person from dan need to call 911 when there is an incident. Also if a person from DAN is more highly qualified it would then be illegal to turn that patient over to a medic, the person on the boat would need to maintain control of the patient until they reached a hospital. Obviously there is a large amount of ignorance out there that people think that that someone with a 4 hour course in O2 can do more for you than someone with 1200 hrs of training. Keep in mind that there is a huge difference between an EMT and a Paramedic.
ZAquaman
Contributor
Why challenge the courses? You might learn something new. If not, perhaps your vast expertise will help some of the others in the course. Just because you can pass a test doesn't always mean you have 100% proficiency. And besides, medicine changes and advances so quickly perhaps there is new information you are not aware of.
You might be a professional caregiver, but I imagine you don't get a lot of training or see a lot of diving accidents, and the DAN courses presumably teach you a good deal of diving-specific stuff.
If I get bent on a boat, I'm not sure whether I'd want the non-EMT guy with the DAN training, or the EMT with no dive-specific training. What I really want is the EMT *with* DAN training... take the course, you might learn something.
Good for DAN.
If I get bent on a boat, I'm not sure whether I'd want the non-EMT guy with the DAN training, or the EMT with no dive-specific training. What I really want is the EMT *with* DAN training... take the course, you might learn something.
Good for DAN.
rds912:
No one said anything about being more highly qualified, I just believe that if they issue a certification based on one completing their program, it's a good thing for them to stick to their guns. This way the certification has meaning. If you don't want to complete their program, no one is forcing you to do so.
Also, becoming a DAN provider is a necessary step to becoming a DAN instructor. If you should ever decide you want to become an instructor, it seems reasonable to me for DAN to know that you have been through their program as conducted by someone trained to teach DAN classes the way DAN wants their classes taught.
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ZAquaman:
Just because you take and pass the DAN course doesn't mean you'll have 100% proficeincy either.
I can see both sides of the reasoning. Some of the courses I can see allowing to be challenged, others, take the course. We can all either learn something new or help someone else learn that new tidbit.
This is by no means a blast or badmouthing of the 911 personel, but from my experiences, unless the emergency people are trained in dive injuries some of the emergency tecniques could be strongly questions. ie; on a dcs case that I was involved with, they refused to put the patient on O2. Not good.
If you want the DEM or DES, take the courses.
ZAquaman:
Precisely. When my EFR certification was due for renewal, I was fortunate to be able to take the
course with a Navy Corpsman. He'd had two tours in Iraq, and believe me he didn't need training
on basic 1st aid...
The rest of us in the class got a lot out of talking to him (including the instructor).
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