Few students get the opportunity to travel across the world as part of their degree course, but a group of Year Three Paramedic Science students recently got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to South Africa and take part in a large-scale rescue exercise with the University of Johannesburg.

Students Abbie Roobottom, Laura Rodgers, Louisa Welton, Ellie McBroom and Lydia Hudson, along with Lecturer in Paramedic Science and Simulation Lead, Karen Scott, recently flew out to the Northern Cape province of South Africa for nearly three weeks.

After visiting the University of Johannesburg’s Department of Emergency Medical Care, the group travelled for more than five hours to Gariep Dam. Upon arriving, students helped to build the camp which would become their home for the next nine days.

“We often had Braai in the evening, a traditional South African BBQ. I really valued being submerged into the culture in this way, and a real sense of community could be felt on the evenings we spent around a fire,” says Abbie.

Following this, the students participated in an intense week-long Emergency Medical Rescue exercise alongside students from the University of Johannesburg, student paramedics from across South Africa and students from Edge Hill University.

Medical scenarios included an island search and rescue event, dam wall extrication and rope rescue, confined space rescue and an incident involving a capsized boat. All students and staff were supervised by expert medical rescue tutors, government organisations and military resources.

Abbie continued: “Gariep Dam was the experience of a lifetime, and I returned home with skills and knowledge that cannot be gained from any other training environment that I will utilise for the rest of my career.

“The challenges I faced out there simply cannot be replicated on the same scale here in the UK, working in high-stress scenarios with complete strangers as teammates where English is not everyone’s first language. This trip was so much more than ‘just’ a rescue training camp; it was truly in a class of its own.”

Lecturer in Paramedic Science, Karen Scott said: “Working with some of the world's leading lecturers and instructors in rescue trauma and critical care was a pivotal milestone in the careers of these budding student paramedics. The simulations and experience pushed students out of their comfort zones to develop as better clinicians and people.”  

The Paramedic Sciences team at Keele hope that this experience will be the first of many collaborations between the two universities.