Irish Team at the Dead Sea International EMS Competition

Congratulations to Paul O’Driscoll, Brigid Wall and Kieran Henry who did a great job representing Irish EMS at the Dead Sea International EMS Competition which was held in Ein Gedi, Israel in September

The competition consisted of 2 days of intense OSCE style situations which were staged using actors as patients. Each team was allocated an ambulance, a student assistant and a driver. An added feature of the competition was that the OSCE locations were sometimes up to 30miles apart, which allowed the teams to experience Israel up close.

The OSCE scenarios were set up so that the teams experienced lots of different situations. One scenario required the team to approach the casualty across a stretch of desert by camel...how’s that for a rapid response?

The team was in good company, many good friendships were established between attending teams from Norway, Canada, Holland, France, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Turkey, England and the United States of America.

The international competition was won by the Polish team with the domestic honours going to a team from the Israeli Defence Force.
 
Left to Right: Kieran Henry, Brigid Wall and Paul O’Driscoll who represented Ireland

PHECC would like to acknowledge the efforts of Dr Jason Van der Velde who accompanied the Irish team. Dr Van der Velde has a keen interest in pre-hospital care and was of great support during the competition.

PHECC assisted the group of Irish practitioners from Cork by sponsoring travel and supplying the Irish team-shirt. Other costs for the Irish team were met by the Israeli EMS service provider Magen David Adom (MDA).

A more in-depth report regarding the competition can be found at MDA’s website http://www.mdais.org/e/316/4022.htm