Participants enrolled in the Lifesaving Society’s Bronze Medallion course will learn lifesaving principles and water rescue education. Components of the course include water proficiency, first aid and recognition, and rescue skills. Candidates must be 13 years of age or older to register for this course, or they must have successfully completed Bronze Star. Rescuers will learn tows and carriers and a variety of defenses and releases while preparing for challenging rescues with increased risk. Rescues will include victims that are conscious and unconscious in various situations and environments. Participants will also learn and gain stroke efficiency and endurance.
The content of the Bronze Medallion is explained in detail on this website. The following is a brief description of the course content of Bronze Medallion:
- Participants will learn to accurately throw buoyant aids.
- Participants will simulate self-rescue techniques in ice, moving water, and swamped or capsized boats.
- Candidates will learn to rescue submerged and unconscious victims and carry them to a point of safety.
- Candidates will learn defenses and releases from a variety of life-threatening rescue situations.
- Participants must swim 500 meters in 15 minutes or better to complete the course.
- Participants will learn rescue breathing and CPR for adult and child victims.
- Participants will learn to treat patients with a variety of complications during CPR and rescue breathing.
- Participants will learn appropriate recognition and care of a victim suffering from circulatory emergencies such as heart attacks, stroke, TIA, and angina.
- Participants will learn to evaluate a scene in a variety of different aquatic environments.
- Candidates will learn techniques to recover and immobilize a conscious breathing victim with a suspected cervical spinal injury in shallow water.
- Participants will learn to perform logical underwater searches of specified areas.
- Candidates will learn to perform non-contact rescues in aquatic situations.
- Participants will learn to rescue a non-breathing victim located in deep water, 5 meters from a point of safety.
- Participants will learn to rescue a distressed or drowning victim in open water at a distance of 20 meters.
To successfully complete the Bronze Medallion candidates must successfully complete all of the components listed above. For more details about the requirements to complete each component select that page from the main or side menu.