A Message from Our Director
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Raymond Swienton MD, FACEP |
Hello and welcome to the NDLS National Training Center-WEST web site! We appreciate the fact that you have taken part of your busy day to “look us over”.
Various versions of these courses were being developed in the late 90’s by several leading academic institutions working independently on similar but distinctly different programs.
The terrible events of 9-11, 2001 served as the catalyst and impetus to not only bring these institutions together, but to spur them on, to refine and combine their individual efforts under the umbrella of the NDLS series of training courses. As a result of that combined effort the first NDLS courses were presented in 2002.
As one of the original authors of the NDLS series of training courses, and as a NDLS Foundation Executive Board member, I have been privileged to occupy a unique vantage point in the overall view of this program. Being there at the inception of the program has enabled me to witness the positive growth and change in the content, direction and scope of these courses through the years.
Even as the courses have changed the underlying goal of the program has not...
“To do the greatest good for the greatest number of potential survivors”.
Key to meeting this goal is the concept that the best response will always be through a unified, coordinated, interoperable, All-Hazards approach to mass casualty management and to scene management. This approach can only be made possible through consistent and standardized education and training.
The NDLS Educational Consortium (NDLSEC) was established to provide for the review, validation and revision of the NDLS courses and content. The NDLSEC is a group of over one hundred organizations; government, private, professional, and the various NDLS training centers and instructors, dedicated to the advancement and continuation of NDLS. A new version of CDLS has been released and new versions of BDLS and ADLS are in the works now.
To date, more than one hundred thousand people have completed one or more of the NDLS series of training courses presented here in the U.S. and around the world. The NDLS organization itself has grown from the original two university based training centers to seventy-two active training centers in the U.S. and ten Global Training Centers in Japan, Korea (3), Mexico (2), Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. (3)
Looking beyond the NDLS series of training courses the NDLS National Training Center – WEST has developed the expertise and infrastructure to develop custom training programs to suit the needs of your organization.
I hope to have the opportunity meet and work with you all soon.
Thank you again for your time and attention.
Best Regards,
Ray Swienton, MD, FACEP
