Michelle Bowman, ARC/GNY Assistant Director of Training and Logistics, writes about her historic trip to Israel to work as an MDA Ambulance Responder.

Before I left for Israel, many people asked how I could actually be trained to function on an ambulance in only one week. Now I know the answer; it was one of the longest, most intense weeks of training in my life.

While being trained to volunteer on a MDA ambulance, we were in class for at least 12-14 hours a day. In one day we covered Adult, Infant, Child CPR with the use of resuscitation equipment, as well as how to treat people for drowning, hangings, hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, poisoning, fainting, epilepsy and electrocution. The next day was focused on trauma.  We rushed through head injuries, chest injuries and abdomen injuries in a couple of hours. Meanwhile, those of us who didn't speak Hebrew (really, only the Americans) were frantically trying to learn enough of the language to communicate with the Chovechim (paramedics) who would be working with us on the ambulance and the cholim (patients) we would be treating. It was quite funny; by the third day we could say drowning, hanging, hyperglycemia, and resuscitation in Hebrew, but most of us still couldn"t count to ten. Our taxi drivers must have thought we were insane as we practiced on our way to and from class.

After several hours in lecture we were given an opportunity to practice our skills. There are very few things that are funnier to watch than someone backboarding a patient for the first time. First, one participant chooses to be a victim. Three other students then immobilize the "victim’s” head, place a neckbrace on the victim, and roll the victim onto a board without rotating the spine. We “killed” many victims throughout our week of training, but by the end we felt confident that we would be able to perform the skill successfully in an emergency.

The training during our first week in January was intense, but fun. Two factors greatly improved the training experience: our instructors and our co-students. Sarah taught the majority of the class with a style that was simultaneously informative and entertaining.  She moved quickly through subjects, but used both personal anecdotes and her medical background to illuminate the subjects. Occasional jokes would introduce humor to the classroom and bring the class together.

Meanwhile, throughout the week we spent an increasing amount of time getting to know the other students in the class. We ate the same meals, practiced our newfound skills, and shared our concerns about actually being placed in an ambulance. Many of the participants had already spent a significant amount of time in Israel, so they gave us tips about the best Israeli snacks, where to go on our weekend trips, and how to speak Hebrew. It was a great bonding experience. After the training ends, all of the participants will be scattered throughout Israel for our six-week volunteering session, but I hope to see the others again before we leave.

By midday on Friday we had passed our midterm and finished the majority of our lessons. This left us a long weekend to memorize everything we had learned and prepare for the final exam on Sunday. We were all exhausted, but we felt confident that we had the information we needed to perform when the time came.