In recent posts, I’ve looked at various PADI Professional opportunities. When looking to further your career, adding other teaching credentials can definitely help. In this article, I’m going to look at the Divers Alert Network Instructor credentials as a way to make you more marketable.

 

DAN, Divers Alert Network, is the largest diver safety organization on the planet. DAN members support the organization because DAN provides resources we can all use. They include DAN insurance for trips, accidents and equipment, DAN Research into how and why divers get injured, and DAN Education which provides training for divers and medical professionals on diving related maladies. DAN Instructors are at the forefront of diver safety training.

 

Let’s take a look at the DAN diving first aid programs for divers. They include:

• Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries
• Basic Life Support & First Aid
• Neurological Assessment
• First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life injuries
• CPR Health Care Provider with First Aid
• Diving Emergency Management Provider (DEMP)
• Diving First Aid for Professional divers (DFAPro)

 

DEMP, Diving Emergency Management Provider, is a composite of the four programs, Oxygen, Basic Life Support, Neurological Assessment and Hazardous Marine Life. The program efficiently streamlines training on the four topics and removes unnecessary repetition.

 

DFAPro, Diving First Aid for Professional Divers, is the professional version of DEMP. It goes into some topics in more detail and includes other topics like blood-borne pathogens which is suited to meet workplace requirements for employee training.

 

How can teaching these programs enhance your career?

• You can integrate them with your existing courses to add value
• You can offer them as stand-alone training to help your student divers learn more and be safer divers
• The skills taught in Basic Life Support & First Aid, Neurological Assessment and First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life injuries are also applicable to accidents outside diving—a great value for your students.
• For non-divers that are around divers (e.g., spouses, boat captains, life guards), they can use the training to be ready to help in case divers in their supervision need care.
• Unlike SCUBA diving certifications that have no expiration date, emergency care providers need periodic retraining. That means the people you train need to come back to you periodically for retraining. Why do they need retraining? Emergency care skills are motor skills. If they’re not used, they decay. The good news is that most providers don’t often need their skills. The less good news is that means they need frequent practice to be proficient and ready to respond.

 

Offering DAN training to your staff bolsters your risk management. If all of your staff are trained in diving first aid and ready to respond and something happens, you have a team that can help.

 

Okay, so now that you want to become an instructor, how do you do it? You need to attend a Divers Alert Network Instructor Qualification Course(IQC) taught by a DAN Trainer. If you’ve not already completed the programs at the provider level, your DAN Trainer will integrate that training. Also, you need to be a certified dive leader, such as a scuba Instructor, Assistant Instructor or Divemaster/Divecon (with any recognized scuba training agency). The IQC covers how to teach DAN courses as well as the specifics of teaching the skills in each program. It’s modular, so you don’t have to complete all of the modules if you’re only interested in one or two. For flexibility, I suggest you complete the full IQC with all of the modules. I’ll cover the details of the DAN IQC in a future post In the interim, please feel free to contact me if you’ve any questions about the Divers Alert Network Instructor Qualification process.

 

Safe Diving!