Antarctic tradies in training for medical emergencies

9 January 2021 This article is over 3 years old

You might not expect to find carpenters, chefs, or an experienced boilermaker in a hospital operating theatre.

But that’s exactly where one such group of tradies and technicians has been spending their time in Hobart recently… and not only that – they’re bound for Antarctica.

Operation Tradies

Video transcript

"My name's Danielle McCarthy. I'm going to be down at Mawson station as Senior Observer with the Bureau of Meteorology."

"I'm Tom Jurs, I'm a carpenter heading south for the 2020 season... 2021 season."

"Being down south, we practice an isolated healthcare model so it's a single doctor model for each Antarctic station and as part of that we rely on our lay surgical assistants to assist us if we need to perform an operation."

"The scenarios that we run through together is a great chance to see how we each work individually, potentially what people's strengths and weaknesses are and how we can start that bonding with communication and also with the way we're going to work together in the future."

"As a lot of them are tradies or come from a scientific background they very quickly realise that a lot of the equipment that we use here or the just the way the body works, is similar to a lot of, you know, machines and plumbing that they might have come across already."

"They're really really good, really easy to teach. They absorb a lot and they learn so much in such a short amount of time."

"That's one of the reasons why the Centre for Antarctic Remote and Maritime Medicine has been set up here in Tasmania in collaboration with the Antarctic Division, because we really are a world centre of excellence when it comes to that medical training for remote and extreme environments."

"You'd have no usual business walking from a construction site into a hospital room and assisting with surgery. It's been incredibly stimulating and rewarding."

"That was a very good learning experience, a real life-type scenario and we covered a lot of points."

"It's one of the things that keeps me coming back during this course. It's really encouraging to see how excited and engaged they are with the process."

"I think they went absolutely brilliant. I've got every confidence that if we have to do any surgical or medical procedures for anybody, they're going to be in the safest hands possible. To see people from such diverse backgrounds stepping into a field that's so different for them and doing so with courage and confidence, is wonderful to see."

[end transcript]

A group of eight expeditioners – scheduled to depart for Mawson and Davis research stations in February – have completed an intense fortnight of training at the Royal Hobart Hospital.

They’re now equipped to work on the Antarctic stations as Lay Surgical Assistants, on hand and ready to assist each single station doctor in the event of an emergency.

It’s hoped they won’t have to use their new-found skills, but, if the event arises, they’ll be ready to step in.

Antarctic Medical Practitioner Dr Kate Kloza is preparing for a year at Mawson station and guided her team of potential assistants through a serious case of appendicitis on a life-like dummy patient.

“It’s really the first chance to meet the people I’m going to be working with during the season,” she said.

“The scenarios we run through together is a great chance to see how we each work individually, potentially what people’s strengths and weaknesses are and how we can start to bond with communication and the way we’re going to work together.”

A world-leading training program

The Lay Surgical Assistant program is the result of a unique partnership between the Australian Antarctic Division and the Royal Hobart Hospital, where the training takes place.

Course Coordinator Dr Chris Wilde is a specialist anaesthetist at the RHH and a pre-hospital and retrieval consultant with Ambulance Tasmania.

He’s also responsible for presenting some “curveballs” at the team during their sessions practicing surgery and anaesthetic skills.

“Some of those curveballs were unintentional but they did really well, they picked up immediately that there was an issue, either with vital signs or the patient changing or the ventilator not delivering what they’d requested it to,” he said.

“And they picked up early on that and had a discussion with the doctor and worked out a plan, how to safely keep the patient asleep – and fix the problem as well, they sailed through that.”

Invaluable opportunity to assist in realistic scenarios

Dr John Cherry will be the station doctor at Davis for the coming season.

“It speaks to the relationship that’s existed between the Antarctic Division and Tasmania’s Department of Health for the last 40 years – and the collaborative relationship that has supported expeditioners to train before the head south, to prepare for the possibility of performing an operation,” Dr Cherry said.

“Obviously we hope that never happens, but the training ensures we’re able to provide that service to expeditioners if that need arises.”

“Really here in Tasmania we’re world leaders when it comes to medical training doctors and personnel for managing medical events in remote and extreme environments.”

Dr Kloza agreed that despite the best planning and safety measures, things could always go wrong in Antarctica.

But she said she had “every confidence that if we have to do any surgical or medical procedures for anybody, they’re going to be in the safest hands possible.”

“To see people from really diverse backgrounds step into a field that’s so different for them and doing so with courage and confidence, is wonderful to see.”

A privilege to take part: what the tradies said

Jordan Smith, chef – “I’ve never done LSA before, so it’s pretty exciting. It’s a real privilege to be an LSA in Antarctica.”

Richard Norris, boilermaker – “Being a boilermaker is a fair bit different to this. 37 years so I’m pretty experienced at that, but this is a totally different thing – and sharing the knowledge, and the friendship.”

Kerryn Oates, chef – “It was great, it was good to do a proper scenario from start to finish with the team that will be on station with us, it was awesome. I’m used to being on my feet all day and you do what you have to do.”

Tom Jurs, carpenter – “Just to be thrown into a completely different world - you’d have no normal business walking from a construction site into a hospital room and assisting with surgery, it has been incredibly stimulating and rewarding.”

Job applications for the 2021/22 Australian Antarctic season are open until January the 21^st.

For more information, go to jobs.antarctica.gov.au