Medical Volunteer Introduction
Having people specifically designated as medical volunteers does 3 things for us:
- It reassures various enforcement agencies that we won't impose an undue burden on city services.
- It helps reassure us that we can keep our people safe.
- It grows our confidence as a movement that we are self-reliant and capable.
Unlike Marshals, there is a basic requirement for Medical Volunteers.
Anyone can volunteer to be a Marshal and do the training. For Medical Volunteers, you need at least one credential such as:
- Current CPR
- Basic first-aid
- Current lifeguard certification
- EMS/EMT/Paramedic (does not need to be current)
- Any current nursing certification
- Medical Doctors might just squeak by
Get the idea? Just about any recognized, current level of training is OK. Some examples of credentials that DON'T check out are:
- Shamanism
- Gutting fish
- Dowsing with a willow wand
- My mom was good with sick people
You get the idea.
Why is "any level" of training good enough?
Good question. We will not, any one of us, practice medicine of aid above our level of training. We'll have communications systems in place to get help where it's needed. Do NOT go above your level of training.
We'll get into this in our training, but that's key here. Don't get in over your head, we'll have communications systems in place for you to get help.
Medical Volunteers are asked to do Marshal training.
We want you to be fully briefed, we need your skills, we need you to have the authority of our Marshals. Unless you really can't for some reason, we'd really, really like you to be trained as Marshals.
In accorance with medical tradition, we'll defer to our highest level of appropriate training.
If we get an ER surgeon to volunteer, this person will hopefully take over as Medical Trainer. It would be good to have a field-trained Medical such as Paramedic or EMT to help with training too. In a march-logistical sense, these people would report to me, the MLO, but in a medical sense and training sense, they would be in charge.
When will training begin and how long will it take?
I'm still open to input on that, but basically it will be like marshal training: a classroom session and hands-on training the day before the event.
