Red Cross Volunteer Opportunity for Pre-health students!

The First Aid Station Team (or FAST, as we are more commonly known!) participates in community events such as half marathons, relay events, Bite of Seattle, music festivals, and Hempfest, and we provide standby medical services at these events. Our members receive free training in Basic First Aid, CPR for the Professional Rescuer, Bloodborne Pathogens, and Administering Emergency Oxygen. No prior medical experience is necessary, and it is a fantastic way to get involved in the community and also get hands on patient care experience! Here is the page on the Red Cross website about our team: http://www.redcross.org/wa/seattle/programs-services/first-aid-stations As well as a blog post recently about us: http://redcrosswwa.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/636/ Some examples of what we might see in a typical day at an event ranges from a scraped knee, a sprained ankle to heat stroke, a seizure, or a heart attack. We work closely with Medic One at many larger events. We also have specialized, more advanced trainings at our monthly meetings, which occur the first Wednesday of every month from 7-9 PM, covering topics such as cardiac emergencies, head, neck and back trauma, environmental emergencies, etc. We are looking for people that are able to commit to at least 12 months. During this time, they must commit to volunteering at a minimum 5 events or 20 hours, and attending at least 6 of 12 monthly meetings. After a year of service on the team, they also have the opportunity to go through Emergency Medical Responder training (provided for free by the Red Cross) to become a team lead. If they are interested in becoming a lead, following this they will receive special leadership training by current Field Training Officers, and shadow events as a lead before they are cleared to supervise teams at events on their own. Getting on the team isn’t hard to do — prospective volunteers need to attend a Red Cross Volunteer Information Session, a volunteer interview, a FAST orientation, and then they will receive their training before they are cleared to begin volunteering at events. Many of our past volunteers (and current volunteers and supervisors!) have gone on or plan to go to medical school, physician assistant programs, nursing school, paramedic programs, and other careers in the healthcare field. Our team is comprised of folks for a passion for prehospital care, those wanting more experience in the medical field, those looking for fun and engaging volunteer hours, or those that just want to give back to the community! We have a wide age range from 16-60, and we are looking for more volunteers from all ages, backgrounds, and interests. Anyone that is interested in potentially joining the team and have any questions or would like to sign up for an orientation are more than welcome to contact me at ariellaangell@gmail.com, or our FAST Coordinator Rebecca Bova at rebecca.bova@redcross.org, or by phone at 206-709-4522. To sign up for a volunteer information session online please visit: https://volunteerconnection.redcross.org/?nd=form__1606 Thank you so much! Ariella Angell First Aid Station Senior Team Lead and Field Training Officer, American Red Cross of Western Washington Contact: ariellaangell@gmail.com