Students from the Paramedic program at Durham College (DC) recently had two valuable experiential learning opportunities to put theory into practice.

On April 6, the annual National Paramedic Competition was back at DC after an absence of two years. The Centre for Collaborative Education on the Oshawa campus was abuzz with paramedic students and professionals from across Ontario showcasing their medical knowledge and skills.

The competition saw 24 teams of professional and student paramedics participate in six different patient-care scenarios. These scenarios were presented with realistic and exciting visual effects to convey an accurate portrayal of the dynamic situations encountered on the job.

Over 60 volunteers from DC’s Paramedic, Emergency Services Fundamentals and Firefighter – Pre-service, Education and Training programs assisted with the competition, providing an excellent opportunity to network and learn from the professional teams in attendance. DC is very proud of our students who participated and alumni who walked away with two awards.

Another experiential learning opportunity took place on April 10, at Camp Samac adjacent to the Oshawa Campus, when the graduating Paramedic class took part in the annual year-end mass casualty incident event. Students were presented with scenarios involving mass casualty incidents, with the purpose of reviewing the principles of triage, and the management of mass casualty incidents.

On February 23 and 24, the first and second-year Paramedic students had their chance to get hands-on experience when they took part in Project Lord Ridgeback a multi-disciplinary experiential learning exercise that simulated a local disaster.