The Order of Malta held its 3rd annual ALS Conference at the Sheraton Hotel, Athlone, Co. Westmeath on Saturday 31st March.
Delegates included student paramedics, advanced paramedics, student nurses, doctors, nurses and medical students. The Advanced Life Support (ALS) conference is an opportunity for members, non-member clinicians and medical professionals as instructors within the organisation who kindly volunteer their time to assist the Ambulance Corps during training and at local, regional and national duties, events and festivals; to up-skill their own training and development.
OMAC’s Tommy Maguire. Photo: (OMAC ALS Conference)
The conference is a training day which adds to the current training and development programmes undertaken and run by Order of Malta Ireland.
The ALS conference is supported by the Order of Malta nationally and is a commitment to its organisers who work hard every year to provide an information packed, hands on training conference to delegates.
This year’s conference involved the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) who gave presentations on ballistics and injury patterns. Members of the ERU also took part in an exercise in the soccer stadium in Athlone where Order of Malta volunteers encountered an incident where several people were injured by an armed assailant.
(Photo courtesy of OMAC ALS Conference)
A number of other presentations were also delivered during the day. Speakers included Dr. David Menzies, ED Consultant who delivered on the ‘Introduction of Emergency Doctors in the Pre-Hospital setting in Ireland and Ultrasound in pre-hospital emergency care.’
(Dr. David Menzeis instructing at conference)
ATACC faculty member and Advanced Paramedic with the National Ambulance Service, Stephen O’ Neill delivered practical sessions on haemorrhage control and advanced airway management.
(Advanced Paramedic Stephen O’ Neill instructing t conference)
ALS Conference organiser Tommy Maguire spoke to Emergency Times’ Declan Keogh today and outlined the benefit of the conference. “This is our 3rd ALS conference and we are really delighted with the interest again this year. The conference provides an opportunity for members to increase our knowledge and advance on our own skills to enhance the care we give and also assist in the delivery of training within OMAC. We were also delighted to have support from the Garda ERU for this year’s conference.”
