The inner working mechanisms of our club
This week we will take a look at some of the prerequisites that go into ensuring a diving club like Blackwater SAC can exist, and to help safeguard that our club is a successfully run and is a capable diving club.
We are a member of CFT (Diving Ireland) which is the national diving federation of Ireland. There are numerous courses that are coordinated by CFT, designed to encourage new divers to take up the sport and to encourage existing members to advance their skills by completing available courses such as: Club Diver; Leading Diver; Diver Coxwain; Nitrox Diver; Diver First Responder and Diving Instructor, to name but a few.
The most recent course organised by our club was the Diver First Responder (DFR) course held in our clubhouse and was coordinated by Finbarr who shared some details of what it takes to qualify as a DFR.
“This past weekend there was a large gathering of divers from Blackwater SAC, Cork SAC and UCC SAC who attended the clubhouse to participate in qualifying as Diver First Responder. This course comprises of two different qualifications,” Finbarr said.
“Firstly the students are trained under the qualification organisation ‘PHECC’ (Pre Hospital Emergency Care Council). The subjects include CPR Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation in cardiac arrest with the correct use of AED’s (Automated External Defibrillators). Each student is trained in the recognition and treatment of Stroke, Heart Attack and choking victims in adults, children and infants as well as the administration of Aspirin for the temporary first aid treatment of heart attack. This training is both individual and group orientated in emergency situations. Having been trained and examined in all of these disciplines, the participants receive their qualification from PHECC - ‘Cardiac First Response Community’.
“This offers each participant the qualified opportunity to perform these vital tasks both within their extended family, the diving world and throughout their whole community. To remain qualified to legally perform these vital tasks, the participants must be re-certified every two years.
“Secondly each student is trained in the recognition and treatment of Bleeding, Shock and the administration of 100% Oxygen to divers in difficulty at diving events. Following training and examination in all of these disciplines, the participants receive their qualification of ‘ Diver First Responder’. This certification is awarded by Diving Ireland, the national diving organisation to which all these clubs are affiliated.
“Both parts of these courses are delivered by Qualified PHECC and Diving Ireland instructors. This weekend 18 students attended these courses and received their instruction and qualification from Blackwater Club instructors Noel Hayes and Finbarr Murphy and from Colm Doyle Cork Sub-Aqua Club and Ruairí Kenny UCC who participated as DFR Instructor candidates. Congratulations to all the students for their participation in these courses,” Finbarr concluded.
It is also worth noting the amount of coordination that goes on behind the scenes in order to ensure a successfully run course such as the DFR course. From further discussions with Finbarr, we’ve learned that there are numerous activities that are conducted in the background such as coordinating the various elements of equipment to get to the clubhouse; mannequin (resuss annie)/ AED/Masks/ RED card ( request emergency dispatch)/ Oxygen equipment. Then there is the administration to ensure all the training with the candidates runs smoothly such as keeping in touch with the candidates and sharing lecture notes, updates etc., prior to the training and the sign off of each of the 18 candidates (5 signed off sheets per candidate). This generally goes unnoticed but all of which was ably deployed by each of the officers mentioned above.