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Since the day DAN® was founded, education has been our number-one priority. When DAN gained nonprofit status, education was written into our underlying mission statement. Today DAN offers education programs for divers, first responders and prehospital medical personnel, and for nurses and physicians.
One question we often get from divers, though, is “Where can I learn more?”
They’ve taken every DAN Training program available and have earned the designation as diving emergency specialists, but they are interested in learning more about dive safety and want to understand the specific concerns they should have with diving and health. The problem has always been that DAN programs offered at a higher level have often required advanced medical training.
In response to those ongoing requests, DAN, in cooperation with its international partners, has developed a new education program called Dive Medicine for Divers. This new modular program includes sections on fitness to dive, safety planning, decompression illness, barotrauma, gas toxicities, equipment-related problems and diving maladies that aren’t pressure-related.
The first three modules of this program were released this fall. Now many DAN Instructors can offer these programs. It will include a selection of skills learned with an instructor, instructor-led lectures, video programs and self-study information.
The first three modules are:
- Basic Examinations — This module teaches how to evaluate a diver’s respiratory and cardiac function using a stethoscope.
- Fitness to Dive — This module discusses what it means to be physically fit enough to dive and the conditions that can keep divers out of the water.
- Safety Planning — This module includes processes and procedures to make your dives safer and also discusses how to deal with the aftermath of a dive accident, including taking care of the diver’s equipment for an investigation and taking care of the rescuers afterward.
In 2009 DAN will release additional modules for this program.
Ultimately, more knowledge and a better understanding of how our bodies react to the pressures and stresses of diving helps us to be safer divers. More information helps us understand our limitations and the dynamics of a rescue situation.
Jeff Myers, chief operating officer for DAN, said the program is great for any diver who wants to know more about diving. “It will help to raise the educational level of divers when it comes to the unique situations we all face underwater,” Myers said. “I can see this as a must-have for any dive professional. With divers in my care, I want to know everything I can.”
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