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Feasibility of a 1-day course to teach cold water immersion to medical practitioners
  1. Felix Wood1,2,
  2. P Gimson3,
  3. T Leckie4,
  4. G Jones5,
  5. R Hemingway6,
  6. A Hartle7,8,
  7. C Kipps9,
  8. M J Stacey10,
  9. UK Heat Illness Advisory Group11
  10. Brighton Marathon Medical Team
      1. 1Academic Department of Military Emergency Medicine, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham, UK
      2. 2Emergency Department, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK
      3. 3Royal Army Medical Corps, Aldershot, Surrey, UK
      4. 4School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK
      5. 5Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK
      6. 6Commando Training Centre Royal Marines, Exmouth, UK
      7. 7Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
      8. 8St John Ambulance, London, UK
      9. 9University College London, London, UK
      10. 10Academic Department of Military Medicine, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham, UK
      11. 11UK Heat Illness Advisory Group, London, UK
      12. 12Brighton Marathon Medical Team, Brighton, UK
      1. Correspondence to Dr Felix Wood; felix.wood{at}nhs.net

      https://doi.org/10.1136/military-2024-002866

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        Severe exertional heat illness (EHI) poses a significant risk to those undertaking prolonged physical activity, including military training,1 and best-practice guidance2 3 recommends treating promptly with whole-body cold water immersion (CWI). Improving the early availability of CWI is imperative for those at risk of severe EHI and requires healthcare teams to become competent and confident in its delivery. However, outside certain specialised settings,4 severe EHI may be seen only occasionally by individual military medical practitioners. As such, opportunities to learn the safe delivery of CWI may be limited, and no recognised programme exists to train personnel.

        Our aim was to design and run a pilot course to teach CWI to a mixed group of military and civilian paramedics and doctors. This project was considered by the MoD Research Ethics Committee who …

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        Footnotes

        • X @RossHemingway, @startle65

        • Collaborators UK Heat Illness Advisory Group: Daniel Fitzpatrick, Amy Boalch, Frederick Stourton. Brighton Marathon Medical Team: Rob Galloway, Rob Greenhalgh, Carrie Weller.

        • Contributors FW assisted with running the course, analysed the survey responses, drafted the manuscript and is the guarantor. PG assisted with analysing the responses and drafted related sections of the manuscript. In addition to assisting with designing and running the course, GJ designed the feedback survey and provided advice on analysing the results. The course was designed and run by TL, RH, CK, AH and MJS. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript. Additional input and assistance were provided by the UK Heat Illness Advisory Group and the Brighton Marathon Medical Team.

        • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

        • Competing interests RH is the director of Nereus Medical, which produces equipment to enable CWI and provided this for use during the course. None of the other authors has a competing interest.

        • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.