Print before you sail
This drill, the free Red-Zone Card and the Emergency Practice Toolkit are printable. Purchased book PDFs can be downloaded ahead of time and read offline.
For remote, maritime and offshore operators
Emergency training for remote and shipboard medical teams
For ship medical centres, offshore and industrial site medics, expedition services, aeromedical teams and rural clinics: a worked drill for a patient you cannot transfer quickly, what works without a connection, a handover structure for the evacuation, and a scoped enquiry for your service.
Free worked drill
A 20-minute drill: the patient who will outlast your oxygen
A tabletop drill for a small remote team. Everything in it is fictional; run it within your own organisation's protocols, formulary and escalation routes.
The scenario
A 58-year-old crew member on a vessel (or a worker on a remote site) has become acutely breathless with a suspected chest infection. SpO2 is 88% on air and 94% on 10 L/min by mask. The nearest suitable hospital is 16 hours away; weather means a helicopter transfer is uncertain for at least 10 hours. You have two full medical oxygen cylinders, each holding about 3,400 litres.
Roles
- Clinician: assesses the patient and leads the medical plan.
- Second clinician or first-aider: monitors observations and runs the oxygen numbers.
- Command: the captain, OIM or site manager, who decides on course, schedule and transport.
- Telemedical advisor: played by the facilitator, who receives the SBAR call.
Timings
| Minutes | Step | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 0–4 | Assess | The clinician states the working diagnosis, the target saturation and the observations that would mean deterioration. |
| 4–9 | Do the oxygen sums | About 6,800 litres at 10 L/min lasts roughly 11 hours, shorter than the 16-hour transit and only just beyond the earliest helicopter window. Check it with the oxygen burn-rate calculator, then agree what flow you will titrate to and what you will do if the window closes. |
| 9–14 | Brief command and the advisor | The clinician gives a structured call using the medevac SBAR template: the oxygen endurance, the capability gap, and a clear recommendation on diversion or evacuation. Command asks the questions it would ask in real life: how long, how sure, what if we wait? |
| 14–20 | Debrief | Did command understand the time limit? Was the recommendation explicit? What was written down, and when? Record the capability gap with the capability gap note template. |
Variations
- Offshore: the OIM wants to wait for the scheduled crew change flight tomorrow.
- Expedition: there is no helicopter option; the only plan is a two-day passage.
- Aeromedical or rural: you are receiving the call; decide what you need before accepting the patient.
What this is and is not
This is a facilitated tabletop exercise. The figures are for teaching: real cylinder sizes, fill pressures and flows differ, so use your own equipment list. It does not assess competence and makes no claim about clinical outcomes.
Background reading: oxygen planning at sea and medevac decision-making at sea.
Low connectivity
What works when the connection does not
Satellite links at sea and on remote sites are often slow, expensive or rationed. Plan training around what is already on board.
The app, after setup
Core training and references in the app work offline once it is installed and set up. Installation, purchases, restoring purchases, updates and some account services need internet access, so do those in port or on shore Wi-Fi.
What needs a connection
Website pages, the calculators and the free cases load from the web. A browser may keep some recently opened pages for offline reading, but do not rely on it: print what you will need before the connection goes.
Handover
Handing the patient over: ship to shore, site to aircraft
Most problems in a remote evacuation appear at the handover, when the receiving team has to rebuild hours of care from a short call. Practise the handover as its own drill.
- Before the call: have the timed observations, the drugs and doses given, the oxygen used and remaining, and the time of onset in front of you.
- The call: use SBAR with an extra line for resources and time: how long your oxygen, drugs and staff will last at the current rate. The medevac SBAR template sets this out.
- The paperwork that travels: a written summary, medication chart, ECGs or images, and any capability-gap note. At port, the port-state handover checklist covers what shore authorities and hospitals usually ask for.
- Afterwards: a short debrief: what did the receiving team ask that you could not answer?
For telemedical advice at sea, see how telemedicine at sea works.
Books
Shipboard and remote titles
Each book has a free "Look inside" preview. Prices are individual retail prices.
The Shipboard Clinician’s Playbook
From $29 PDF
Resource planning, communication with command and escalation at sea.
The On-Call Emergency Playbook
$29 PDF
First-15-minutes cases for an ED, ward or remote clinic.
Operator enquiry
Tell us about your service
Seven short required questions and one optional one, so the first reply can be specific. Dr Osolika replies personally, including when the books or the app are not a good fit for your setting.
What can be scoped: drill materials adapted to your setting, book use for a medical team or fleet, and a limited app pilot. Each is agreed in writing for your organisation.
What is not offered: clinical cover, telemedical advice, protocol writing or sign-off, an admin dashboard, learner analytics, certificates or CPD/CME accreditation.
Please do not include any patient information.
Your details are used only to reply. See the privacy policy. Prefer email? ezekiel@theshipdoctor.com
Thank you — your enquiry has been sent
Dr Osolika will reply to the work email you gave. In the meantime you can run the free drill with your team.
Training an ED, hospital or education team?
The Teams page has the 15-minute ED handover drill and teaching books for hospital teams; the educators page has a repeatable classroom and EMS session.