Basseterre, St. Kitts, December 07, 2018 (SKNIS): Forty (40) Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) from St. Kitts and Nevis benefited from an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) refresher course, thanks to a Government-funded workshop conducted by the Global Medical Education Training (GMET) organization, based in Washington, DC.
At the last workshop in a series of training workshops conducted over the past two weeks, held at JNF General Hospital on December 07, National Registered Paramedic and workshop facilitator, Doreen Gumbs-Vines said that her team found that the EMTs at the workshop have impeccable skills and she has enjoyed her experience thus far with them.
“What we have found, the EMTs here in St. Kitts have impeccable skills and all we are doing is refreshing those things that they knew; enhancing on some potential gaps; improving on these skills, and adding new techniques. I have to give credit to the EMT educators here because some of the EMT’s here are providing skills that some of the EMTs in other countries are not,” said Doreen Gumbs-Vines, who is one of the founders of GMET.
She noted that the course provided the EMTs updated information on topics, such as basic patient assessment, CPR and medical procedures. She said that the course format entails a new teaching mechanism called “flipping the classroom,” where the participants are engaged in hands on activities as opposed to listening to lectures.
She was assisted by co-facilitators, Captain Arthur Bradley and Dr. Nkechi Ileke Adeoye.
Medical Chief of Staff, Dr. Cameron Wilkinson said that he is pleased that the Ministry of Health – and by extension the Government – is taking an interest in the healthcare of the people in the Federation.
“Continuing medical education is something that is germane now to the practice of medicine. I am happy that we are taking this effort to educate and upgrade our Emergency Medical Technicians. We know that they are the first responders, the ones who go out to the scenes to address the health issues initially, and what they do can have a far-reaching effect on the outcome of the patients,” noted Dr. Wilkinson.
He added that the refresher course is very timely as the Christmas and Carnival Season approaches. He said that it was instrumental that the ministry invest the time, effort and money into the education of the EMTs to make sure their skills are sharpened and upgraded.
“Within the next two or three weeks, we will have thousands of persons flooding our shores, and their [EMTs] services will be called upon greatly, so being on the cutting edge of medicine at this time is very essential,” he added.
GMET is an organization of dedicated professionals with the experience, dedication, commitment and expertise needed to assist communities, companies, organization and institutions with their emergency health care training and educational needs.
