The Vanier First Aid Team
The Vanier First Aid team was conceived two semesters ago by Jeremy Levett, a Health Science student here at Vanier. The headquarters is located in D-105 (Jake’s metro area) and is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday to Friday. An official ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Wednesday, March 7th, where Jeremy was joined by Vanier’s Director General John McMahon to celebrate this occasion.
The Director-General had this to say about the project: “This is truly an impressive project and I am proud to see how engaged our students are in terms of wanting to put in place services designed to offer help and support to their peers while complimenting existing services that are already in place at the College.”
The team was created through the initiative of Jeremy, who is aspiring to become a cardiac surgeon. He explained that “Vanier is a big campus with a lot of students and I thought that the idea of introducing the First Aid Team would be win-win for everyone. On the one hand, it provides support to the school nurse and security whom are extremely busy while on the other, it offers students an additional resource whereby they can get help for all kinds of different medical situations. It’s a great way for students to give something back to the community.”
As stated by Jeremy and the Director General, the goal of the First Aid Team is to help make Vanier an even safer and more accessible environment by providing first aid assistance to students and faculty who are in need. The Team is made up entirely of student volunteers from various programs in Vanier who have been certified in first aid and CPR training by either St. John’s Ambulance, The Lifesaving Society, The Canadian Red Cross or The Heart and Stroke Foundation. The volunteers will be working in close collaboration with Vanier’s Security Department, which will be called in to offer assistance for all emergency medical situations.
The First Aid Team room has all the necessary equipment to come to a patient’s aid, including medical supplies and an examination bed, all of which were purchased through funding by the VCSA, who donated 10,000 dollars to the project.
The Team has many projects on the run, such as a Social Awareness Committee responsible for organizing preventative and educational campaigns on various medical issues (such as allergy prevention, STDs, and nutrition), intercollegiate first aid competitions and having first aid team volunteers present at sporting events and much more.
If you would like to join the team but do not have a first aid certification, the college offers an 8-hour course in emergency first aid and CPR plus AED training. If you are already certified or plan on it, put those skills to use in volunteer hours on The First Aid Team, which will also go towards your Student Transcript Activity Record (STAR Program). Recruitment of volunteers is done for this semester, but keep an eye out for the opportunity to apply for the team next semester. The First Aid Team recruits and interviews new volunteers at the beginning of every Fall or Winter semester.
Please stop by the First Aid Team room if you require any medical assistance! If you would like further information about The First Aid Team, do not hesitate to email firstaidteam@vaniercollege.qc.ca .
Written by: India-Lynn Upshaw-Ruffner and Zenith Ismaael Neyaz
Photo by: Lara Kaafarani
