Daniel Sundal spent the last 16 weeks in school, all the time with stars in his eyes.
He wasn’t daydreaming though, just learning how to be the best emergency responder that he could be under the tutelage of some high-flying professors.
Last Thursday the 43-year-old St. Albert man stood in line at a hangar at the Edmonton City Centre Airport. He was one of the first 11 graduates from the newly established STARS Academy, a unique and intensive learning opportunity that focuses on delivering critical care and transport skills.
“They are really great in the fact that they have a lot of emphasis on training. They have an amazing human simulator … it talks, it breathes and its eyes will blink and dilate. It will actually respond to treatment that you give or recognize the drugs that you give it. It’s an amazing facility for that.”
His teachers included experienced crewmembers of the famous red flying ambulances and he was in pretty comfortable territory. Sundal first trained as an emergency medical technician in 1996 and now works as a paramedic firefighter with the City of Leduc. No stranger to working under pressure, he said his shifts are a full 24 hours long and they are frequently busy.
“One thing that the academy did is it takes you out of your comfort zone a bit. As a paramedic, I’m quite used to seeing emergency calls. What they did is talk about intensive care for patients.”
The academy is designed for experienced paramedics, nurses, respiratory therapists and physicians who wish to hone their transport medicine skills. There was a regular classroom component but students were also given case studies and online sessions. A practicum required them to participate in three 12-hour shifts with STARS crews that ended in a rigorous four-day assessment.
The strain of the challenge might have been too much for one of the class.
“We did have 12 and only 11 showed up. We don’t know what happened to the 12th one. I don’t know if she dropped out. Twelve started and 11 finished.”
As a result of his graduation he now has a leg up on his fellow emergency responders, but it also gives him favour should he one day want to take fixed wing med-evac missions or sign on with STARS itself.
“The bottom line is it makes me a better paramedic,” he indicated. “It broadened my vision as far as patient care goes.”
STARS is a non-profit organization that’s dedicated to safe, rapid and highly specialized emergency medical transport for the critically ill and injured. It has flown more than 20,000 missions since its inception 25 years ago.
STARS also provides emergency medical training and education like community-based education programs, mobile simulation and operational outreach training programs.
