It's a first of its kind in Atlantic Canada. A 'Campus Response Team Conference' being held this weekend at Dalhousie University is offering student volunteers a chance to upgrade their first aid skills to deal with new threats to the health of communities.
In one competition, a group of students have only ten minutes to treat a patient who has collapsed on the floor. It's a simulation designed to see how well the team will prepare under pressure.
"We wanted to create an environment where we could collaborate and share different ideas and perspectives, and help grow campus response teams across the Atlantic provinces," says Chloe Blackman, Dalhousie Response Team President.
The course is being taught to student volunteers by St. John Ambulance. Conference offers first aid training to University students
Some of the student volunteers have already used their skills to help people.
"I encountered a person who had a fall actually, just on the street, an elderly person, and with these skills you feel more empowered to help people," says student volunteer Faisal Jarrar.
"I feel like I can take care of people that I love and are important to me, but it's also a way to give back to Dalhousie, and after Dalhousie, just Halifax in general," explains Julie Morrisey.
Students inject water into oranges as a simulation to learn the technique of injecting naloxone to bring overdoses opiate users back from the brink of death.
"In university, people are experimenting with drugs, and they're drinking, and a lot of times it's people's first time away from home," explains nursing student Laura Rigg.
It’s training that experts say is desperately needed.
"There are one-to-three deaths per week from fentanyl recorded in Nova Scotia. So it's a definite need for this course," says Lisa Burke from the St. John Ambulance.
While it's a good start, Burke says there is still room to learn. She would like to see campus response teams in universities and community college all over Canada, including training sessions on mental health and sexual assault.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ron Shaw.
