| EVENT: |
National Disaster Life Support Courses (BDLS & ADLS) |
| DATE/TIME: | Friday-Sunday, April 11-13, 2008 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
| LOCATION: |
Phoenix Fire Dept. Training Academy 2430 S 22nd Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85009 |
NOTE: Media are invited to participate in the Advanced Disaster Life Support training scenario on Sunday, April 13, 2008. Class participants will use the skills they learned to “treat” patients of a disaster in a mock-scenario. Volunteers will be given a role to play as a patient with specific injuries caused by a bomb or other event that causes mass casualties. Volunteers may be asked to wear moulage (makeup depicting certain injuries). Comfortable clothing is recommended. Two scenarios sessions will be run: 7 a.m. to noon and noon to 5 p.m.
As part of a series of trainings offered around the state by the Critical Response & Emergency Systems Training (CREST) program at The University of Arizona, the Basic Disaster Life Support (BDLS) and Advanced Disaster Life Support (ADLS) courses will focus on an all-hazards approach to disaster preparedness.
“We don’t know when or what crisis may strike our communities,” says Ben Munger, PhD, and associate director for the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center (AEMRC) at the UA. “The all-hazards lessons in the NDLS courses cover a wide spectrum of incidents including nuclear, biological, chemical, explosive and natural disasters.”
Participants receive classroom training on the recognition and the medical management of victims of natural and manmade disasters, such as explosions, and nuclear, biological and chemical attacks in the one-day BDLS course. The following two-day ADLS course adds to these lessons with training on community and hospital disaster planning, media and communications during the disaster and mass fatality management. The final steps of the ADLS course provide participants with interactive group sessions and hands-on disaster drills.
The NDLS courses are offered by the CREST program as part of a $4.46 million federal grant to the UA and the University of New Mexico. In two years, CREST has provided training to more than 3,000 healthcare professionals in Arizona. For more information about the CREST program, visit www.crestaznm.org.
Established by the Arizona Board of Regents in 1990, the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center is a Center of Excellence at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. AEMRC’s mission is the advancement of research, education and training in emergency medicine. For more information about AEMRC visit the website at www.aemrc.arizona.edu.
