Written by Theressa Jabbour

Header and Thumbnail photo of Cameron Brown, president by Theressa Jabbour

“Young. Eager. Dedicated.” These are the words Cameron Brown, team president, uses to describe the members of Saint Mary’s University’s (SMU) Medical Campus Response Team (MCRT). A division of St. John Ambulance Canada (SJA), whose volunteers provide first-aid and emergency response support, the MCRT is composed of a passionate group of Medical First Responders who watch over attendees on campus, ready to help should an emergency arise. Although founded in 2018, the MCRT has only been around in its current form for a few years.

This academic year, the team has been as active as ever. Cameron, a third year student majoring in Biology, minoring in Psychology and pursuing an Honours next year, was elected the 2024-2025 president. He has faced “lots of challenges but lots of successes as well,” leading the MCRT through a number of changes with the hopes of growing the team.

Having been a part of the MCRT for three years now, I took the opportunity last month to sit down and have a chat with my teammate and friend Cameron to bring to light the SMU MCRT’s role on campus. It has provided over 60 hours of coverage on campus just this term, and the term is not over yet. With a little more support, it can perhaps expand its operations for the benefit of students, faculty and staff.

The Team:

The MCRT’s aim is to “provide first-aid coverage on campus for all students, staff, faculty, supporters, whoever may visit our little home off of Robie Street,” asserts Cameron. One of his biggest accomplishments as president is facilitating the MCRT’s change from being a society to an independent team working to provide first-aid coverage on campus. Cameron explains, “we offer a service and less so host events,” which is why it made sense for the MCRT to form a partnership with Facilities. He goes on to relate the work of Facilities to that of the team, with both groups being the “first to respond” to their respective calls. This change has been positive so far, with the new designation allowing the team to “offer services on campus in a little bit more of a professional and organised manner.” The MCRT also works closely with campus security. Cameron believes they are “stronger as a team than just our individual parts,” highlighting the support security can offer by helping the team access off-limit areas, assume crowd control, and direct ambulances and paramedics in cases of emergency. Another accomplishment Cameron is proud of is the team’s recognition by Dr Summerby-Murray, SMU president: “Knowing that our small start has begun to reach the upper echelons of this school is incredibly motivating and has me very excited to continue moving in that direction.” SMU’s president, pictured below, has stopped by to greet the team on multiple occasions, which is a boost of confidence felt by many members.

Cameron’s Presidency:

Cameron reminisces about his decision to take on the mantle of president: “Although I thoroughly enjoyed my responsibilities as a division member, I felt as if I had more to give to this wonderful team.” Stepping out of his comfort zone took some work, as leadership is not effortless; it takes work and practice to be the first voice to speak up and make a change. He deals with this by reassuring himself he is here for a reason and is doing the right thing, alongside the support of a lot of people including the team around him: “I do work with an executive team and make sure that we are all included in decisions.”

Teamwork is important to Cameron. His big goal with the team, having stepped up as leader, is to “build a sense of community around it.” Cameron’s background as a football player comes into play here. Currently the punter on the Huskies football team, he is striving to build similar levels of trust within the MCRT. “Having that deep trust in the people you work with will just end up benefiting you if the time comes that you need to put your training to work.”

“Being a part of the campus team, there are lots of opportunities for you to be able to broaden your horizons and get to experience different things,” he says. Cameron got a chance to dip his toes into volunteering with the Halifax division of SJA while a member of the MCRT, and decided to pursue it by joining the division full time. As a member of the Halifax division, he has picked up some important skills: “Everybody around you knows something that you don’t.” Cameron mentions a role model he is working with in the Halifax division, who has taken Cameron under his wing and is helping him understand what it means to be a duty leader and what it takes to be an effective one.

Photo of Cameron Brown by Theressa Jabbour

He also stresses the importance of pre-ambulatory care in cases of emergencies, which SJA volunteers specialise in, recalling a cardiac arrest we responded to at an off-campus event, earning the both of us a Life-Saving Award. “Those 5-10 minutes before the paramedics show up could be the difference in saving a life,” he states. Fundamental skills such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), maintaining airways, and oxygen administration play a significant role in the survival rates of people whose hearts have clinically stopped. Only one in ten people survive a cardiac arrest out-of-hospital. “Standard first-aid training has reduced the number of preventable deaths in Canada pretty significantly over the last 120 years,” he believes, and reports have shown that chances of survival can more than double in situations where quick action is taken. “Theoretically, if everybody was first-aid trained, deaths related to non-anaphylactic asphyxiation or choking would drop significantly since everyone would know how to administer effective abdominal thrusts.” The same could be said for strokes or heart attacks, as recognizing the signs and taking action in the first 5-10 minutes are essential,” he emphasises. “We’re here for a reason:” Cameron makes his case for expanding the MCRT’s operations on campus, but that does not come without its challenges.

Recruiting and Training:

Although recruitment for this year has concluded, students can apply to join next year by contacting the team either through email (smumcrt2021@gmail.com) or Instagram (@smumcrt). SMU’s MCRT looks for “people who are ready to get their hands dirty,” as Cameron puts it. Having this team on a resume can be appealing, but membership has to be earned. Volunteers are expected to cover 15 hours worth of duties throughout the academic year, and attend regular training sessions, which according to Cameron is “very doable.”

Photo of MCRT volunteers by Theressa Jabbour

Currently operating with a group of almost 10 volunteers, the team is planning to increase their numbers by training new recruits this month. “To receive your Advanced Medical First Responder 1 (AMFR) certification, you require 40 hours of classroom and hands-on work” provided by SJA and the MCRT on campus, “as well as regular training being required moving forward” to maintain strong skills. This course is a step above and beyond standard first-aid, and betters the odds of patient survival even more: “You have more tools in the toolbox and you can attack more complex situations with it.” These recruits will learn AMFR training topics such as spinal immobilisation, patient transport and advanced patient diagnostics. In addition, the skill of taking vitals like blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and pupil dilation helps volunteers build a better understanding of a patient’s situation. Cameron reports that administering oxygen is “one of the most useful tools we have as it has applications in both life threatening and non life threatening situations.”

One struggle the team faces is the cycle of getting smaller once members leave the team upon graduation. Training volunteers is one solution, but this takes time. The team is considering opening up spots for already trained standard first-aiders. These members would receive some on-the-job experience, with a long-term plan of training them to a full AMFR level. In addition, any student with up-to-date AMFR certification or equivalent would be welcome to contact the team to discuss joining.

Volunteering:

The MCRT begins operating in August with Huskies football’s home opener. At the moment, the team mainly covers varsity events. The volunteers set up as people start filtering in, at a table or in the stands, depending on where the best vantage point is. They are easy to spot, in reflective vests and carrying specialised equipment, which includes an MFR kit, an automated external defibrillator (AED) and an oxygen kit, preparing them for a variety of emergencies. The role of the volunteers is to assist spectators, as athletic trainers deal with athlete injuries. “However, should there be some sort of major incident on the field, we can always be called down to assist as well,” Cameron points out.

Varsity coverage tends to happen in three spots: Huskies stadium, the indoor courts at the Homburg Centre, and the Dauphinee Centre. The outdoor location provides volunteers with the opportunity to patrol on the track, while the indoor locations offer protection from the weather. Asking him what his favourite type of event to volunteer at is, Cameron replies, “hockey games, they bring a lot of really fun energy to the rink and the crowd.” Mine happens to be football games, as the chance to walk around the field is too good to give up. This irony is not lost on us. “From a fan's perspective, it's fun to see big hits,” he remarks, but “that makes it difficult being both a fan of the game and on duty since big hits are much less fun when you're in a first-aid mindset.”

Last year about 50 hours of coverage was provided on campus, mostly at varsity games. Societies and other campus organisations may not be aware they can request first-aid coverage at their events too. “If you are planning on having an event that may have a lot of people or some sort of risk associated with it, feel free to reach out to us at any point with the details of your event as well as expected numbers and then we will do what we can to put a team together and get you first-aid coverage.” Just this week the MCRT covered the annual SMU x Dal engineering societies’ flag football tournament.

Greg Knight, Assistant Director of Athletics and Recreation, has nothing but praise for the MCRT: “It's been great. Cameron, their lead, has been very communicative and easy to work with regarding logistics of running our events.” Having the MCRT on duty at games can give staff and spectators alike peace of mind, knowing that there is a team on-site ready to provide first-aid. Knight also recommends the MCRT’s services to other campus event organisers, noting the volunteers as “receptive, communicative, and have shown a willingness to assist our fans and spectators in our events.”

To request coverage, event organisers can reach out to the MCRT through either email (smumcrt2021@gmail.com) or Instagram (@smumcrt). The team would prefer a week’s notice, but implements a cut off at 72 hours. Make sure to include all the details, including location and number of attendees.

Future plans:

“A big idea I would like to implement comes from my experiences being an RA last year,” Cameron begins: expanding the team to offer an overnight residence response team. A small team would be on-call, and could be dispatched to any first-aid emergency, probably alongside a Residence Service Officer (RSO). A team in residence could help reduce the burden on campus security, as currently only RSOs can respond to emergencies, according to the Residence Handbook. Another service Cameron can potentially see the team starting is “a daytime on-call response team.” Currently, the security team responds to all first-aid calls that do not happen at a varsity event. All campus security personnel are trained to provide first aid, although they do not specialise in it like the MCRT does. “It makes sense at some point to work alongside them,” Cameron tells me.

Working with campus security has been a positive experience, but having a private space for the MCRT on campus, such as an office, could elevate the services they can provide. A place to manage the team out of, and handle calls, could solidify the MCRT as an organisation on campus. That is not to say the team has not received any support already. “The biggest thing that the university administration team can do to support us: continue acknowledging our existence,” Cameron underlines. Simply spreading the word about the MCRT’s first-aid service could aid the team in its goal of getting where it wants to be.

One can look at other campus response teams across Canada for examples of university support permitting expanded operations. Dalhousie’s Medical Campus Response Team (DMCRT), active since 2014, ceased being a student society and transitioned to a funded service within its student affairs division in 2022; a $2.50 fee per term in student tuition is levied for the DMCRT. In addition to providing first-aid coverage at society events, the DMCRT began a project that same year that sees members “on-call” on Saturday nights, in partnership with Security Services, which has since expanded to Thursdays and Fridays too. Dalhousie University is seemingly supportive of the team’s activities, with its website highlighting the DMCRT as a resource, and its official statements including recognition of the student volunteers. The Dalhousie Student Union also points students towards the DMCRT for first-aid support.

Cameron has “so much respect for the Dalhousie Medical Campus Response Team,” whose members have been nothing but supportive of SMU’s MCRT. “Using them as a good example of what a well-run team looks like, is a great way to move forward,” he continues. With university support, perhaps the MCRT could expand its operations in a similar manner.

The MCRT has changed over the years, but under Cameron’s leadership, it hopes to remain a staple of SMU’s campus. In order for the team to expand its operations, it is clear that more support is needed, whether that is from the university or campus organisers utilising the first-aid service. The MCRT provides its services for free, so Cameron encourages any society or organisation on campus to request coverage. SMUSA’s welcome week events, Residence groups’ activities and society events such as SMU Engineering’s flag football game could benefit from first-aid coverage. If more organisers requested coverage, the MCRT could secure its position as a benefit to the university community, aiding the team in its efforts to expand. On-call volunteers on campus and in Residence are solid plans to look forward to.

The next time you see the Medical Campus Response Team on campus, do not hesitate to interact with them. They are there to support safety first and foremost, and can answer any questions you may have; hopefully, you will never require their services. The more visibility they have, the greater the possibility they can expand their operations. If you would like to support the MCRT’s mission, you can follow the team on Instagram and spread the word.

First-Aid on Campus: SMU’s Medical Campus Response Team

The Team:

Cameron’s Presidency:

Recruiting and Training:

Volunteering:

Future plans:

FOLLOW US