Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

By the end of the course, the student should be able to:

• Integrate principles of personal safety and safe patient handling into rescue operations. 
• Employ effective communication techniques during simple and complex rescue operations, within the Incident Management System structure. 
• Perform basic patient access, disentanglement, and retrieval functions during vehicle extrication and low angle rescue operations.

The material in this course will be presented in lecture and lab formats. The lecture portion will including pre-rescue planning, emergency scene organization, and various rescue situations. The Lab portion will include working with basic ropes and knots, patient handling, and vehicle extrication.

At the beginning of the course, the instructor will detail the methods used to evaluate student progress and the criteria for assigning a course grade. The methods may include one or more of the following tools: written and practical skills examinations, quizzes, homework assignments, small group problem solving of questions arising from application of course concepts and concerns to actual experience, and role playing.

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

• Safety Issues
• Incident Command System
• Ropes, Knots, Hardware Systems and Rigging
• Patient Packaging & Movement
• Slope Evacuation
• Vehicle Construction
• Vehicle Stabilization
• Extrication: Hand and Power Tools
• Collapsed Structures
• Confined Spaces
• Trench Rescue
• Water Rescue