New EUROWA training modules delivered to Dutch Rehabilitation Facility Managers

Hugo Nijkamp (Sea Alarm) and Claude Velter (Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend) delivered new training modules at a EUROWA Rehabilitation Facility Managers training event in April in Ostend, Belgium. The event was delivered to 14 participants from SON wildlife rehabilitation centres in the Netherlands and Belgium, who were already highly qualified before coming to Ostend. On their request, new WildX-materials have been developed to allow facility managers to investigate the complex dynamics of a large temporary facility one week into its operations.

The newly developed modules follow a discussion-based methodology and include:

• Visualisation of work floor dynamics and documentation of a temporary wildlife hospital on day 7+ of a dynamic 600+ bird incident.
• Card decks reflecting a 600+ population of bird in different stages of rehabilitation that help to visualise the work floor arrangements supporting the dynamics of the rehabilitation process.
• A dynamic triage exercise simulating operations in the intake department, where accepted animals can directly feed into a simulation of the stabilisation department.
• Assessment and visualisation of the personnel needs of a temporary rehabilitation centre on day 7+, showing numbers of managers, specialists, advanced responders, basic responders and volunteers per department and for the whole facility.

The event also included a visit and assessment exercise of a warehouse as a candidate building of opportunity for a 600+ bird temporary rehabilitation centre. This assessment and related layout-design exercise was linked to the WildX modules to enable participants to make a reality check between conceptual WildX insights and the potential and limitations of a given facility layout.

The regular training opportunities offered to SON wildlife specialists in the Netherlands have brought them to an elevated expertise level, thanks to structural investments by Rijkswaterstaat via the multi-year implementation programme of the national oiled wildlife response plan.

These new WildX modules are now internationally available within the family of EUROWA life-long learning packages for Facility Managers. If you are interested in EUROWA training, please contact us.