Lifeboat First Aid Training

 
Course Instructor, Howard Nichols & Lifeboat Mechanic Brendan Gonnelly

Crew from Castletownbere Lifeboat Station recently undertook an intensive first-aid course provided by the R.N.L.I.’s Mobile training Unit. The unit, a fully equipped medical emergency and maritime accident training unit, was based in Dinish Island for a period of ten consecutive nights. This unit was established in  1990 and was sponsored by Lloyds Bank in the U.K. It is drawn by articulated truck and over an eleven year period it has visited every one of the 260 lifeboat stations from the Outer Hebrides to the Channel Islands to the Aran Islands. It operates for 40 weeks in the year and is heading for the Aran Islands when finished in Castletownbere. Interestingly, all equipment will have to be carried to Inismor by hand as the ferry is unable to transport the mobile unit!!

The Course Instructor since its inception is Mr Howard Nichols, a front-line paramedic for twenty four years, who served as an instructor at Ambulance Colleges in the U.K. In conjunction with the R.N.L.I. and other maritime medical specialists, the course is designed specifically for first aid at sea paying particular attention to the sophisticated life-saving equipment on board modern all-weather lifeboats.

Having completed  the twenty hour training course, the nine crew were assessed to R.N.L.I  specifications by the stations Honorary Medical Advisor, Dr Colin Gleeson. All nine candidates were deemed successful.