SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 5. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Nearly a hundred Medicine and Nursing students from the University of La Laguna (ULL) yesterday acquired knowledge and techniques on how to perform initial care for a swimmer who has drowned, in the talk-workshop organized by the platform ‘Canarias , 1500 Km of Coast’ and AEMTE.
For three hours, the students, from different courses of both health careers, learned the real dimension of what the drowning phenomenon represents in the Canary Islands, Spain, Europe and worldwide, through the information provided by the promoter of the platform and disseminating expert in drowning prevention, Sebastián Quintana.
Quintana projected images of real cases, emphasizing the need to apply the observation of the aquatic scene to prevent or, where appropriate, act as quickly as possible with the injured person. “Every second that passes in which a bather does not breathe, the chances of his survival are drastically reduced,” said the journalist and prevention expert.
Subsequently, Juan Ramón Viera, a nurse by profession and an international reference as a trainer in the emergency healthcare approach, offered a practical workshop that generated the maximum interest of future healthcare professionals. Viera was accompanied by the Red Cross first aid trainer Asier Cámara.
For this, mannequins were used on which the Medicine and Nursing students practiced Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) maneuvers, and practiced how to use a defibrillator (DEA) for adult swimmers who had suffered cardiac arrest, as well as the particularities when implementing it in children or pregnant women.
The talk was organized by the Association of Medicine Students of Tenerife (AEMTE/IFMSA-Tenerife). AEMTE is the Local Committee that represents IFMSA-Spain, the Spanish Federation of Medical Student Associations for International Cooperation. IFMSA (International Federation of Medical Student’s Associations), represents one of the largest student organizations on the planet. Currently, it is made up of associations of medical students from more than 90 countries around the world, and represents approximately 610,000 medical students from some 550 faculties in 94 countries around the world.
‘Canarias, 1500 Km de Costa’, the first audiovisual campaign of the EU for the Prevention of Accidents in the Aquatic Environment, is an initiative of public interest sponsored by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, official collaborator of ADEAC – Bandera Azul Spain and with the support of the Government of the Canary Islands, the council of Ciudad de Mar de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Elder Museum of Science and Technology.
