Scottish Modules...

Last night we had the joys of two RTC lectures - 4 and 5.

I've had a moan in an earlier post about the Scottish Modules and now it's time for some more!

These Modules are meant to be the mainstay of our training and certainly seem to take up a great deal of our limited drill time.

The first lecture was all about vehicle stabilisation and casualty extrication. Now, to say these modules were done on the cheap would be an understatement. There were just a couple of photos of RTC drills and the rest of the 'imagery' was made up of drawings seemingly done by the local nursery school!
From these pictures we are meant to be able to interpret the lecture notes (read out to us) and 'see' these depicted on the screen.

Is it beyond the collective means of all the individual Fire Service's to club together and get some decent films made of the various RTC themes we need to know? The films can be made of small segments showing, in detail, each of the areas that the lecture notes cover. Then put the whole lot together and show a mock RTC with all the individual themes rolled into the one drill.

Some of these Scottish Modules cover areas that we, as ordinary firefighters, will never encounter. Yet something that is our bread and butter is dealt with by a Powerpoint presentation that, quite honestly, doesn't cut the mustard.

We need to be able to put ladders up, pump water, extinguish fires, be competent BA wearers and be well versed in RTC procedures and techniques. These are the mainstays of the job. Knowledge of all these others areas is a bonus. Let's get the basics right first...