Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Literature exists that reviews the physical preparedness requirements and assessments for paramedics, policemen and firefighters but there is little that focuses on the assessment of physical preparedness for emergency medical care (EMC) providers who are engaged in emergency medical care and medical rescue. Students registered for the four-year Professional Degree in EMC are required to engage in emergency medical care and medical rescue as part of their core curriculum with the intention of producing a graduate that is an expert in both. Based on this, it is essential that EMC students are exposed to a physical training programme and assessment that is contextually relevant to the specific components of fitness required to safely engage with the programme content. The universities presenting the BEMC programmes all require a level of physical preparedness of their EMC students but each institute is utilizing a different assessment tool, many of which are not scientifically validated and/or properly linked to the outcomes of the EMC and medical rescue modules. The researcher is currently engaged in a doctoral study with the aim to address this knowledge gap through the development and validation of a tool for the assessment of physical preparedness for South African EMC students. A prospective, descriptive, exploratory sequential design was selected for this study. This presentation intends presenting the results of the first phase which utilized a desktop study to explore and describe the context of physical preparedness in the field of EMC and medical rescue and how this relates to the Degree.