MERT

Friday I completed my Medical Emergency Response Team Training. So now I can be helpful or something. Actually, the hardest part of the whole thing was getting good at taking a blood pressure. I hope to never have to use any of my training, but I'm ready just in case.

Oh, and I got a 2-way radio... someone is supposed to come show me what to do with it. I have no clue; am I supposed to carry it on me all day? What's the etiquette in meetings? I suppose if there really is an emergency I need to respond to that I would need to have the thing on me. My hope is that the designated ERT channel doesn't have chatter on it unless there's an actual emergency. I really want to be helpful but I also don't want to be the asshole disrupting meetings.

Emergency Response Training

I'm working on becoming a member of Apple's Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT). Here's a description of what that's all about:

"The Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) program provides advanced medical emergency training to non-HealthCare professionals. This training furnishes each MERT member with the skills to provide immediate and temporary care to a seriously ill or injured employee at the workplace. This care is delivered during "everyday" emergencies and in the event of a local disaster (such as an earthquake, explosion, Haz- Mat spill, etc."

Basically it entails 36 hours of training, including CPR/AED, First Aid, fire extinguisher, bloodborne pathogens and building evacuation. Today I completed my CPR and AED certifications and next week I'll be taking First Aid. The bulk of the rest of the training is done on 3 consecutive Fridays, all day. I'm really looking forward to being able to help people out.