Marine Ed

After completing five years of nursing science focused study I have switched focus and been taking marine courses. As well as the subject being different the course dynamics are so different.  Rather than a class with a 30:2 female: male ratio with the average demographic being a mid-twenties student, these classes are 1:12 female: male ratio with the latter being primarily 40-60 year old fisherman and tugboat operators. The classes have a strong focus on the practical which is great.   The first one I took a few weeks ago was sort of a bridge between the two, Marine Advanced First Aid.  This was a transport Canada required certification  in which I didn’t learn anything new but did gain some appreciation and pity for my c-spined patients, as well as learning useful stuff such as how to take a pulse and blood pressure =)

This week, however, I got to take Marine Emergency Duties A2.  This was super interesting course touched base with my inner dream of SAR and coastguard and was all about life rafts, open water survival, and firefighting.

(Class pics, iphone) Setting off hand held flares

 

Immersion Suites.  Sweet suits that besides a bit around the neck keep you complete dry in the water and extend your survival time from hypothermia in northern waters up to 48hours.

Learning how to right life rafts.

Being the only female has some perks.. I got to pull the tines to inflate the raft =)                       
We went out to the Navy Training School for Firefighting. They have completely built the inside of a ship inside a building and have a high tech propane system through out the rooms to have fires in galleys, bunks, engine rooms ect.  This was in a room where they were just showing us the stages of fire.  The heat was intense!!

Outside for Special K extinguisher training

 

Back inside for learning how to correctly open bulkhead doors away/towards you and then practice using both water and CO2 extinguishers to put out engine room fires.

Then back outside for fire hose defensive and attack techniques