Volunteer Expedition Medic , Belize
Company: Blue Ventures
Location: Belize
Blue Ventures offer discounted volunteer expeditions for medical professionals who can provide health, safety and general treatment for our marine conservation and research programmes in Madagascar.
Period Minimum 6 weeks or full duration of Belize lionfish dive trip.
Location Belize
Start date as per expedition schedule for marine conservation expeditions and lionfish dive trips.
Responsibilities
The position of Volunteer Expedition Medic for our expeditions involves providing health care to all staff and volunteers as well as emergency medical treatment and overseeing MEDIVAC if the need arises. The role also requires maintenance of medical supplies, introductory lectures and briefings for our expedition team and the enforcement of on-site health and safety measures. There may also be the requirement to supervise medical students on elective.
Requirements
The volunteer medic must be a qualified doctor, nurse or paramedic who is able to practice independently in a remote environment. As a doctor they must have a minimum of 2 years experience and be registered to practice with their national medical board (GMC or equivalent). Recent emergency medicine, general practice or acute adult medicine experience are all desirable. Nurses and Paramedics require a minimum of 3 years experience, are currently practicing with recent accident and emergency experience as an essential requirement. For both groups a knowledge of dive related illness and a dive qualification is desirable but not essential. They should practice according to the British Standard set out by the General Medical Council which includes patient confidentiality and accurate record keeping, as reports are submitted frequently to the home base.
All Volunteer Expedition Medics must have medical indemnity cover for their time with Blue Ventures. Unfortunately at this time, Blue Ventures cannot provide any liability or indemnity cover for volunteer medics.
Package (prices as of 1st July 2014)
A 6 week expedition, including all food, accommodation, transfers to our dive camp (when travelling on our expedition dates) and daily dives is offered at £1,850 in Belize. Extended stays of 12 weeks are offered at £3,000 and 18 weeks at £4,200. The 7 day lionfish dive trip is offered at £500 and the 16 day trip at £1,150.
For dive courses there is an extra charge of £100 for Open Water and £75 for Advanced Open Water. All participants, must get trained up to Advanced Open Water to be able to take part in research dives. Volunteer Expedition Medics can also extend their dive training during the marine conservation expedition. A 25% discount is offered for the Rescue Diver course but the Dive Master will be charged at the full price of £395 and requires you being on site for 12 weeks. Manuals for all courses will be the responsibility of the individual as everyone must have their own copy to carry out the course.
This opportunity offers experience in expedition medicine in a tropical environment and the practical challenges of delivering long term development programmes in a remote location in a developing country. The Volunteer Expedition Medic will take part in normal day to day running of the camp and will have an opportunity to do all of the marine research surveys and work within the local community of our volunteer programme. Briefings are provided prior to departure and the candidate will have expert back up from the UK.
As the Volunteer Expedition Medic’s role is voluntary there may be more than one Medic on any expedition as Blue Ventures aims to provide opportunities for as many volunteers as possible.
If you would like to get a better insight into the day-to-day life of a medic in Belize, please click here.
To join a group as Volunteer Expedition Medic please complete an online application.
For enquiries please call +44 (0)20 7697 8598.
