Steve Oliphant with a group of patrollers from the south bay will guide an OEC class (#21885) for 15 students in the mid-peninsula/ south bay area from Aug. 30 to Nov 12, 2011. The class will meet every Tuesday and Thursday evening (7-10pm) and on four weekend days (8am-4pm.). The planned location for the class is at NetApp in Sunnyvale. See "Directions" for details.

Outdoor Emergency Care® is the National Ski Patrol’s award-winning training program for patrollers and others in the recreation community who deal with emergency situations. The program is designed to help you manage the toughest emergencies, in all seasons. Developed in the late 1980s for the 26,000 members of the National Ski Patrol, Outdoor Emergency Care is a training program that is tailored to the nonurban rescuer. Today, OEC is considered the standard of training for emergency care in the outdoor environment and is recognized by resorts and recreational facilities in all 50 states. Passing this class is required to become a patroller at all Eastern Sierra and Mother Lode resorts.

Our course is designed to serve ski patrols in the Lake Tahoe/Truckee area. Our patrollers work within an hour of definitive care by ground transport and are serviced by helicopter transport for patients with urgent problems. Most high backcountry sites in the Basin have cell coverage and helicopter transport as well. We do not spend class time on any issues which are not important in this winter environment. Candidates expecting to work at remote ski areas or in a summer environment must put extra effort into the relevant textbook and workbook information.

The schedule for the 2011 class is listed below. 

If you need information that is not on the web site, please email at paloalto.oec@gmail.com.

The course will be largely "hands on." Each classroom session will have three parts. First, will be a brief lecture focusing on required “on hill” knowledge. Second, will be demonstration and training of new skills to be learned. And third (and largest time) will be practice scenarios.

Before signing up for the class, a careful “life” assessment should be made of the time commitment required. Besides the “in class” time, there will be 75-100 hours needed to complete the reading and workbook activities involved with the OEC text. It is also strongly advised that the students practice their “hands on” skills out of the class room setting. While not mandatory, past participants have found that practicing part of at least one day every weekend (especially in the second half of the class) was almost a necessity.

The OEC text, like any medical text, is very difficult reading (and there is a substantial reading assignment to be completed before the very first class session). The brief lectures in this class DO NOT go over the text book content, but rather focus on the information needed to perform on the hill. To pass the course, the students must pass the nationally mandated written final examination (Nov 10^th) given on detailed information drawn from the textbook. You must score 80% or higher.

Many past students say that there is just too much material that needs to be absorbed during the class, and as a result, they fell behind on the reading assignments. This is a downward spiral. It is strongly advised that the students obtain the text book and the work book well ahead of the start of class, and finish as much of the reading and workbook sessions as possible before the start of class. In this way, the time commitment can be stretched out. And this will allow the time during class to focus on the “hands on” skills to be acquired.

If possible, students may want to consider completing a First Responder (or higher level) emergency response course before beginning the reading for this course, unless the student has some medical background. Such a course covers the material of OEC, but not to the same detail.

This course will make extensive use of email and of the World Wide Web for communication and instruction especially before the class begins. Accommodation (and an additional reproduction charge) will be made for students without Web or email access. Be sure to talk with the instructor if you won't check email regularly between August 1 and the end of the course.

Registration Procedure

Click Here to register or click the register menu item on the left side of the screen.

Instructors:

The success of this class depends on the help of many experienced patrollers who volunteer to help with the classes. If you are an experienced patroller who would like to help please send email to paloalto.oec@gmail.com.