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MY EXPERIENCE AS A JUDGE AT THE BICEPP CERT COMPETITION
Patricia Pitts, CERT Coordinator of King William County, Virginia

When I was appointed Volunteer Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Coordinator for King William County, Virginia, I never dreamed of the opportunities or experiences I would encounter.

As a CERT Coordinator I have received many emails regarding items for sale, conferences and the email from Chris Wright of BICEPP in Los Angeles, California inviting CERT Coordinators to participate in a CERT Competition April 3rd and 4^th, 2004 by sending a team, be a judge, or vendor.

King William County’s CERT Program had only been implemented for a short time and none of the teams were ready for competition; which, therefore, dashed my hopes of participating in this great opportunity. However, Lewis Heath, Safety Director of King William County and my boss, asked me in March if I would still like to go to California for the competition as a judge. I was so excited it didn’t take long for me to say “YES!” I immediately notified Chris that I would, indeed, be able to attend as a judge and travel arrangements were in process. It had been more than 20 years since I had flown, which made my trip even more exciting.

Once I arrived in Los Angeles on April 2^nd the excitement I felt kept me from being nervous. Along with the excitement of participating in this competition, it was also my very first time in Los Angeles, which made the entire trip a wonderful adventure.

On Saturday, April 3^rd, as I waited for Diane to pick me up, I kept wondering what injuries the victims assigned to our station, Patient Packaging and Transport, would have. Diane picked me up and off we headed for the Convention Center. What an amazing facility for so many activities being held at any one time.

Once inside we meet with Chris for our instructions. Diane, Mark and I proceeded to check out our station, get acquainted with each other and go over what our roles would be as judges.

Once the victims were ready we were called to “pick them up”. Believe me these individuals looked pretty well worked over with their “injuries”. Our victims consisted of an open compound fracture of the arm, spinal injury and shock. Of course the shock and spinal injury victims showed no signs of blood, which proceeded to confuse the teams.

The competition began with the sound of a “whistle” from Big Ben. With each team we explained the “disaster” as being an earthquake. There are three victims and we are looking for three carries; blanket, chair and backboard. Each team approached the area differently, but asking the same questions regarding safety and secure scene. Once that was established, the team would enter and begin their assessment of the victims and triage appropriately. The team leaders would divide their team up into twos for each victim. Once the victim was triaged, the teams would begin treating, packaging and preparing for transport.

Our job as judges was to be fair and consistent with each team. Not to vary our decision in scores even if we knew one team had more advanced training than the next. We judged the teams on correctly triaging the victims (immediate, delayed or dead), packaging and transporting the immediate victim first and then concentrating on packaging and transporting the other two victims, team work, were the patients packaged and transported correctly, was the team leader in control of the team and communication.

Remaining fair and consistent with each team proved to be a challenge. Realization that each team had a different level of training kept us on our toes. Sympathy could not enter into the scoring. Several teams had only been working “together” for a week. What a vast difference this made with their knowledge of each other’s limitations, cooperation with their team leader and how they actually worked together as a team. We critiqued each team after their last patient was “transported”. Sometimes a team member would disagree with some of the areas of improvement we pointed out. We tried extremely hard to be diplomatic and understanding during this process. We always began with “Remember this is a learning experience…” and then proceeded with positive feedback and areas for improvement. We explained how important it is as a CERT volunteer that they maintain communication with each other, constantly work together as a team and not against each other, establish and listen to your team leader and learn from mistakes, and that an injured CERT volunteer creates another victim.

What I learned is that all teams were trained at different levels and some were not prepared for competition, but wanted to use this as a learning tool. Being involved in this type of competition can be stressful on the judges, but much more stressful on the participating teams. These teams are working towards a goal to improve their skills and to take back this new knowledge to their instructors or other team members. This experience for me, as a judge, proved to me that I could be tough, fair and consistent with scoring. On Saturday Mark, Diane and I worked together as a team on the scoring. But on Sunday I was the lone judge with an assistant. What I kept stressing to the participating teams was team work, team work, team work. That is exactly what helped me the most on Sunday. I had a fantastic assistant, Cheryl, who was a tremendous asset to me in many areas with scoring, along with her taking time to show me around the city for a short time. We cannot do this alone, whether we are a CERT volunteer, instructor, or a coordinator, working as a team is the only way.

With that said, I want to thank All those involved with BICEPP, Diane, Mark, Cheryl and Lewis Heath for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I brought back so much more to teach to the next CERT class in King William County, Virginia.

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