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| Information Regarding the "PER"
Parks Emergency Responder Course |
| 5109 - 17A Avenue NW Edmonton, AB, Canada T6L 1K5 (780) 461-5040 fax / voice email: |
NOTICE: Rescue Dynamics does not own the curriculum for the Parks Emergency Responder course. It is the property of Portage College. We simply teach the program under contract to Portage College. Since we get a number of inquiries about this mystery course that often shows up on our course schedules this page was created to explain what PER is. This information is a statement of opinion and general information only. You are encouraged to contact Portage College for the most current curriculum details or for information on how to set up a PER course for your National Park. We can direct you to the most appropriate person to contact at the College if required.
PER is a super-specialized advanced first aid course for National Park Wardens. It incorporates elements of high tech equipment such as oxygen, suction and vacuum splints alongside a host of low-tech or improvised materials. Subjects taught range from typical advanced first aid traumatic and medical emergencies to environmental injuries such as altitude, diving, heat, cold and wilderness pathogens typically discussed in wilderness oriented courses. This course is in fact a hybrid of front-country and back-country courses all geared toward National Park wardens and the equipment they use along with the way in which they operate. Although it is an excellent course for its intended purpose, it may not be well suited to people who do not work as National Park wardens or related park personnel.
The course is over eighty hours long, typically taught in two five day blocks over a twelve day period. Refresher training is five days long every three years. Courses have been taught in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon, North West Territories and Nunavat. These courses are normally taught in National Parks or adjacent communities. Some parks and locations at which PER courses have been offered include:
The courses are normally "closed courses" which means registration is restricted to National Park Wardens or other park staff. Students enroll on a given course by contacting their public safety supervisor in their park who makes arrangements for them to attend though the host park course organizer. On some courses it may be possible to arrange for non-park personnel to attend on a one-time basis, but this is the exception rather than the rule as most courses are fully booked with wardens.
Prerequisites for the Full 80 hour course are a valid standard first aid certificate and level C CPR that includes one and two person CPR plus infant and child (within the last 6 months). Prerequisites for the five day refresher course is completion of the PER full course, refresher or approved equivalent within the last 39 months, plus level C CPR that includes one and two person CPR plus infant and child (within the last 6 months).
The courses are normally taught by Kathy Elliot, Peter Symons and Cyril Shokoples. (Kathy and Peter contract directly to Portage College as independent contractors and thus have no relationship to Rescue Dynamics in regard to this course. Kathy and Peter do contract to Rescue Dynamics for other courses. Cyril contracts to Portage College through Rescue Dynamics. Neither Kathy, Peter nor Cyril are employees of Portage College.)
Pre - History: The PER course has been in existence since 1990, but its roots can be traced back to the 1970s in some regards. In the early 1970s a paramedic named Eric Rast began teaching advanced first aid courses. Part of the market for his courses was Park Wardens as Eric frequented the Calgary / Banff area and often held courses in these locations. The course being offered by Eric closely followed the US DOT curriculum for their national EMT standard and used US EMT training materials, textbooks and curricula. In fact in the 1970s and even into the early 1980s the examinations written by course participants were the US National registry EMT exams. (At that time the standard length of training for a US DOT EMT course was only 80 hours!)
With time a very competent core group of other paramedics and instructors began instructing a spin-off program of specialized wilderness first aid that also initially used the US registry examinations. Of note to this discussion was the arrival on the scene of John Nicklin, Dr. Alan Ausford and Cyril Shokoples. These three individuals along with many other key instructors continued to develop a program that eventually led to creation of four future programs (EMT, EMR, PER and WMT). As the program developed, its administration was eventually handled by the Alberta Vocational College (AVC). When AVC was privatized it became Portage College.
History: In 1989, Parks Canada decided they wanted to standardize training for Park wardens in regard to first aid. Mike Schintz, a warden and regional supervisor in the Warden Service in Western Canada was tasked with the responsibility of seeing this project through. Parks hired a consultant from Calgary who put out a call for tenders to develop a new course specific to wardens. AVC put forward the proposal that was eventually accepted for creation of this new course. At that time John Nicklin was Director or Research and Development at AVC and had been instructing the precursor advanced first aid courses prior to that time. Dr. Alan Ausford was intimately familiar with the courses being delivered at that time. He was a medical advisor to AVC and was in fact a course instructor in the past. Cyril Shokoples was also an instructor and was the Coordinator of Prehospital care Programs at AVC. He was responsible for AVC's EMT program among other things. He was seconded to the Department of Research and Development in order to create what was to be come the PER course.
Cyril became the head of the project to create PER under the supervision of John Nicklin and the medical control of Dr. Ausford. He hired Morgan Neff to work on program development along with him. Karen Strobel was hired as a research assistant to create medical and informational databases and do necessary research to facilitate program creation. Once a work plan was agreed upon, the team set upon the task of doing an "occupational analysis" and CAPS study.
They used the Competency Analysis Profile process to decide on a core curriculum. In this process they assembled twelve wardens from across Canada and held a three day meeting. Morgan and Cyril were facilitators in this process and the wardens assembled decided upon the critical or core competencies. Once the list of competencies was created they were assembled into a draft Competency Analysis profile. This document was then circulated across the country along with a questionnaire regarding emergency response in Parks across Canada. Over thirty National Parks responded to this survey and validated the initial profile.
Based on this process a complete list of competencies was decided upon and learning objectives were created. These objectives were once again circulated for comment. Morgan and Cyril set about the task of assembling this information into a proposed course outline. They also created a first draft of a course study guide using many of the resource materials collected by Karen.
In 1990 a pilot course was run in Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. It was instructed by Morgan and Cyril and provided valuable feedback for revision to the course and manual. Since that time the course has been ongoing. Kathy Elliot eventually joined the instructional team for PER and has remained a key instructor right up to the present. Morgan has since gone on to work in rescue related fields in Canada and the US. Kathy has also been involved in two subsequent updates / revisions to the PER manual. More recently Peter Symons, a registered Paramedic working in Banff and a former EMT instructor at Portage College has joined the instructional team for PER. His BTLS and ACLS instructor experience have been a valuable addition to the team.
Since course creation over a decade ago PER has been adopted as the primary training course for many of the National Parks in Northern and Western Canada. The future may well see a further curriculum validation take place in which the initial assumptions upon which the course was created will be compared to the realities of today. In any case, PER seems destined to continue as a valid part of the training of many Park Wardens and other park personnel who may be involved in responding to emergencies in park environments.
For detailed information please contact us or Portage College.
March 2003 - updated March 2006
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Further Information, Comments, Suggestions?Rescue Dynamics
5109 - 17A Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB, Canada T6L 1K5
phone (780) 461-5040 voice / fax
Copyright © 1997, 1999, 2002, 2007 Cyril Shokoples
All rights reserved. Terms & Conditions apply.
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