On Tuesday 22nd September 2015, our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE met at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ with Greg Bleakley, Senior Lecturer in Adult Nursing and Health, at the School of Health and Human Sciences, University of Bolton, Deane Road.

Greg had approached the team enquiring if the team could assist with delivering a one day session for 1st year Adult Nursing students, who are currently coming to the end of their clinical experience, and who were now required to undertake team building skills learning.

Greg requested that we consider passing on some of our personal experiences of rescues to the students, alongside practical exercise scenarios which would present the nursing students with ‘exercise’ incidents to deal with, providing the students and some attendant staff members with team building and communications skills opportunities as well as practising their medical expertise and knowledge.

Today we held such an ‘awareness day’ as we termed it for eight student nurses, Greg Bleakley and two colleague staff, with all meeting at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ for a 10.00hrs (10.10hrs Team Leader time!) start.

Present was our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, Chris Tennant, Michael Eddleston, Mark Scott, Training Officer Alistair Greenough, Equipment Officer – Base and Catering Paul Copley, Martin Battersby and DVSD Handler Dave Marsh alongside DVSD Search Dog Sasha.

A short introduction session was followed by two MREW DVDs, then an open discussion session relating some of our many experiences in mountain rescue to the student nurses and three staff members.

By 15.30hrs we had covered the use of mountain rescue stretchers, demonstrated our various splintage equipment, discussed drugs in use in mountain rescue and our casualty care training, and looked at the equipment carried on our four Team Land Rover Defender Mountain Rescue Ambulances and our Incident Control Vehicle.

Accompanying Greg Bleakley today were University of Bolton colleagues ; Programme Leader MSc Advanced Practice, Clinical Practice, Senior Lecturer Lucy Tomlins, and Doctor Russell Gurbutt, Senior Lecturer.

Lucy, who remains active in the outdoors, mentioned that in the 1980s she had been a member of Bolton MRT (very long serving team members will remember her as Lucy Prestwich, and also her involvement with Longsleddale Outdoor Centre)

By the end of the day, all present were firmly of the opinion that the whole event had been of considerable mutual benefit, with the hope we can build upon this first day, with future student nurse intakes at the University of Bolton.

Our Training Officer Alistair Greenough also discussed with Greg, Lucy and Russell, the possibility of the Bolton MRT membership making use of some of the nursing course teaching aids at the University of Bolton

All in all, a great day and yet another example of community engagement by Bolton MRT, alongside our core role of providing a voluntary search and rescue service to the local community, and our training for such.