teaching, learning, and assessment in the department. These activities provide a safe, realistic environment that the department staff use to provide students with an opportunity for patient treatment and rescue without the risk of injuring an actual patient or student. The soon to be completed Rescue Simulation Center has been designed to cater for the teaching, learning, assessment, and research of many specialised rescue disciplines. Connor Hartnady, a lecturer in the Department of Emergency Medical Care, is steering the project in terms of technical detail. The four-storey structure will include a five- metre-deep pool for aquatic rescue and survival training, helicopter underwater egress/escape training (“HUET”), and dive rescue, Connor explains. “Fifteen metres above the pool a helicopter fuselage suspended on a gantry crane will allow for ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ hoist training. The fuselage will be used for hoist training and can be adapted to provide a platform for safety training around rotor-wing aircraft and patient care within the confines of a helicopter,” he says. An an urban search and rescue area will be created in the basement of the structure with space for configurable confined-space tunnel systems, sacrificial concrete slabs, technical search props, shoring jigs, and heavy lifting props. A three-meter deep T-shape concrete trench simulator will provide a safe area for the teaching of trench rescue. The confined-space tunnels will be linked to the upper 384m² open area from the basement. And disaster and mass casualty preparedness, innovation and training will also be catered for, he says. The entire simulation center can be made dark, with wind and rain simulators that aim to increase the fidelity of the rescue and patient simulations. There will also be two dedicated lecture venues, three offices, and ablution facilities with showers and toilets. The center’s primary objective will be to support current departmental academic demands and new opportunities for education, training, and research within the rescue environment in South Africa and the SADC region as a whole. Education and training of rescue specialists and the capacitation of our national and international disaster response teams remain key strategies of the National Disaster Management Centre and the National Department of Health. UJ’s Rescue Simulation Centre also dovetails with the recent focus of the World Health Organisation and the National Department of Health on developing African capacity concerning the management of major incidents and disasters. The centre aims to allow for the exposure of our loacal and international response teams to simulated rescue and disaster situations, thus allowing us to identify better focus areas for improvement and associated additional training needs.
Mr Connor Hartnady - focused on the mission at hand, emergency rescue
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ALUMNI IMPUMELELO
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