IMO International Day for Women in Maritime

To celebrate the IMOs International Day for Women in Maritime, we thought it would be fun to get the lowdown on Red Square Medical’s very own Liz Baugh, Lead Medical Consultant, and find out what it’s really like to be a woman in the Maritime world…

Liz grew up in Oxfordshire, miles away from any shoreline and the only reason she knew you could work at sea was because her Father was in the Merchant Navy. Otherwise she would never have known it was an option. 

Before joining the Navy, she worked with horses, spending up to 8 hours a day in the saddle. With tough working conditions, freezing extremities, managing temperamental creatures with a mind of their own and being constantly covered in dirt and mud, she deems it great prep for a military career.

Liz spent 9 years serving Her Majesty in the Senior Service and loved every minute of it. Her role was a Medic, taking care of the physical and mental health of all those she served onboard with. The role could be onshore or at sea and involved different kinds of support from clinical to operational, to the Royal Marines and employment boards. One of her favourite drafts was keeping ships medically fit for sea. This means ensuring that the crew were medically and psychologically fit, the kit was up to date and properly maintained, and the crew had all of the training necessary to patch people up if needed. 


The Navy took her all over the world, but the stand out locations included Gibraltar, and those who have served on a warship who pull into Gibraltar will understand the reasons why! She found her time in West Africa fascinating and loved Singapore and Malaysia. Liz also loves a challenge and enjoyed representing her units in sporting competitions; running in particular has always been a big part of her life.


Though Liz told us that many of her favourite memories are not for polite ears, one of the best was to sit on a stern bollard in the evening with the props turning through the inky black sea. It gave her the chance to look back at the day's work and feel very very privileged to have been allowed to look after those people who chose to serve in the military. It might sound cheesy but there it is! 


While Liz still works on ships at sea, she credits those formative years as a young Royal Navy medic as truly amazing and misses that frontline clinical role of seeing patients, responding to emergencies and physically being on a ship at sea. .

Red Square Medical has been officially up and running since November 2016, but Liz had been working as an independent consultant for about a year before. The start of Red Square Medical all happened by accident really. Liz had been lecturing at Warsash Maritime Academy and was asked to go onboard to assist with an audit of the ships emergency response plans - both as a desktop exercise and in action. Jobs like that seemed to keep popping up, and because Liz enjoys the operational side of things, and working with teams onboard, it seemed like a good idea to put some real effort into growing a business doing something she loves.


And Red Square Medical has constantly evolved since then. Early on, the training side was the bread and butter of the business. But, the idea has always been to provide an end to end service that allows a shipping company to come along and ask, “we’d love a review of our SOPs and kit, and a gap analysis of existing training. Oh, and if you can assist with operations and clinical support, that would be amazing!”


Essentially, companies can dip in and out of our services, or subscribe to receive the full package. As such, we have a really diverse team of experts available and can always make sure we task the right person and can offer the most valuable service to our clients. 

When we asked Liz where she sees herself and Red Square Medical in 5 years time, she asked if it was OK to say “sipping cocktails while looking out to sea!” and we’d probably all love that!


But seriously, Liz wants to see Red Square Medical really settle into its stride. Her aim is for it to be a company that people choose to work for because it provides excellent support and opportunities for its employees and contractors. A company that people choose to engage with because it can provide their ships with a service born from years of our own hard work at sea, on a variety of vessels from sail boats to luxury cruise ships and everything in between. 


In terms of being female in a male dominated industry, Liz is extremely task focused and actively seeks out and makes the most of opportunities. In the Navy, she found an environment where opportunities were there for the taking, regardless of gender, and since moving into the commercial and cruise sector, feels there she hasn’t experienced any barriers due to gender. On the whole it’s been a very positive experience. 


Liz told us she has had the privilege of working with some truly inspiring people through her career and seeing them in action. Each great person has helped her to develop her own career by setting an example of how it should be done; showing rather than just telling. 


In contrast, she has also worked with some absolute idiots and acknowledges that they can have a hugely negative impact. Learning this as a young woman setting out on an exciting new adventure, she was fortunate to have access to an amazing support structure that helped to navigate around the idiots and gradually build a toolkit of resilience and coping techniques for the future. 


Liz also explained that sadly, harassment has been commonplace in some roles. Having a good grounding and resilience helped her to deal with it in a way that also showed less experienced women that it’s OK to speak up and it’s definitely not OK for it to happen. She hopes to be a positive role model for other women in the maritime industry in the same way that there are many women that she looks up to and admires as good role models.


Balance. Liz believes that balance is the key attribute that women bring to the table and while only 1.2% of the global maritime workforce are women currently, opportunities are being created. 


Liz was only taught about ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ jobs at school; it’s a career that girls still don’t often hear about or explore during their education, and there really isn’t much information available about career progression. It’s also really important for female role models to educate the next generations about jobs available at sea. She’s pleased to see the progress being made in the equality arena, but access to information about jobs at sea is still limited. However, there are some incredible female seafarers within her network who are actively promoting careers in the Merchant Navy and she believes it’s a great opportunity for those looking for a different way of life. 


Shipping companies could also address this by reaching out to secondary schools at careers fairs, and target schools further inland, not just the main port towns and cities. They need to get modern with social media because today's generation are more engaged with the visual. Liz believes video content is key and much of what’s currently out there isn’t appealing to today’s teenager because it’s not relatable. 

We also broached the question that women are alway asked in interviews, but for some reason men aren’t… ‘how do you balance work and family life?’  But it’s an important consideration for most women in any industry and may be part of the reason for inequality, particularly in more senior posts.


Liz told us that in all honesty, she doesn’t think she balances it very well. She has an amazing family and very resilient children, but being a parent who works away comes with a huge rucksack of guilt. It leaves her feeling as if she is always letting someone down somewhere and, like a lot of women, the first thing to be forgotten is herself so self-care goes out of the window. 


Social media has a lot to answer for and she’s conscious that reading posts gives an impression of other women who have it ‘so together’, leaving others genuinely wondering how they do it. But, fundamentally, Liz loves her work and without it wouldn’t be the person she wants to be, so it’s not a complaint; more of an observation. 


In terms of advice for future generations, Liz believes research is key. Look into the opportunities available and speak to people already in the job. Think very carefully about the type of company you’d like to work for and investigate their career opportunities. Don’t put up with any rubbish and stand up for yourself and your colleagues, regardless of gender. Be the change that you want to see and seize every exciting challenge that comes your way.  


While all jobs come with good and bad, whether you’re ashore or at sea, working on ships means you can’t get away from the bad. But, reach out, you’re not alone and support is available. 


Liz has been in the industry for 23 years now and her biggest love is that of being at sea, the challenge of providing medical care in remote situations with limited resources, plus the people she works with, which is a great testimonial in its own right. Jobs in the maritime industry come with the chance to have a blast and see the world. Explore whenever you can get ashore. You can learn amongst the best and work with some truly exceptional people. 


Happy IMO Women in Maritime Day!

The Recovery Position - an STCW refresh

by Rachel Smith • 18 December 2024
Welcome to our December blog, which is all about the recovery position and how to manage an unconscious casualty who is breathing normally. Unconsciousness is a medical emergency as the person is very vulnerable and may not be able to manage their own airway effectively. We also need to think about the cause of unconsciousness. Is it a simple fainting episode due to illness? Is it a massive hemorrhage causing hypovolemic shock? Or is it due to some kind of external factor or injury? This blog looks at how to manage an unconscious casualty. So, if we have a casualty who is unconscious, but who is breathing normally for themselves, and we’re not suspecting a serious injury, the recovery position is the best position to use while monitoring them. The recovery position keeps their airway open and makes sure that vomit or liquid won’t cause them to choke.

Revisiting our guest blogs

by Rachel Smith • 11 December 2024
All the guest blogs! When we started adding blogs to our website back in early 2021, we did a little feature on each of our instructors of the time. They’re quite a fascinating bunch and the series proved quite popular amongst our followers. In addition to our amazing instructors, we work with some utterly incredible human beings all over the world, and the idea of sharing their stories grew and developed into what eventually became a monthly guest blog. It’s been interesting to find out more about how medical care at sea or in remote locations features in their work, and to discover a few fun facts along the way. This month, we thought that it might be a fun idea to give you a chance to go back into the archives and review all the guest blogs over the last few years! Maybe even let us know which your favourite one is?

Cayman Maritime Report 2023

by Rachel Smith • 27 November 2024
We’ve taken a look at the 2023 Casualty Summary Report from the Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands (MACI) to see what kind of incidents and trends their data shows us, even with relatively small data sets, and how this may be able to transfer to our own risk assessments and actual practice. You can find the report here: Cayman Maritime Report 2023 The first thing we noted was the authors note that the data is split out into incidents. This means that one incident may include a number of events. So a collision and any resulting injury is one incident, but is reported as two events, or more, if more than one person is injured. It made us wonder whether this method of reporting by an authority represents how incidents are reported onboard and whether it should be a consideration? Of course, for any set of statistics presented at the moment, we also have to consider the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact this has on trends including that period. While essential shipping continued, the cruise and superyacht sectors reduced activity and staffing, often to a skeleton crew while anchored somewhere. So this will be reflected in the historic data sets that we analyse from 2019 to 2021 and may not accurately reflect increases and decreases during and since then. In some situations, we may need to look further back for accurate data. We also need to consider whether increases in incidents and events is also down to increased reporting - suggesting an improvement in the awareness of reporting requirements and greater engagement from the industry and individual sectors - this can only be a good development. Since 2020, the type of injury has been recorded in 8 different categories, with hand and foot injuries topping the leaderboard, closely followed by head, body, and back injuries. So if you were looking to run drills, or practise medical skills, these would be the key areas to cover. Only one death was an occupational accident, and is being investigated here: MAIB Investigations (search for case #9229607). It relates to a fall down a ventilation shaft on a bulk carrier in a Greek shipyard. The full report was still pending at the time of writing. Merchant ships are heavily regulated by a number of authorities, and the requirements for personal protective equipment and safe systems of work are enforced and applied to reduce accidents and incidents onboard. This has led to a lower reporting of incidents than in the commercial yacht sector. Could there be room for improvement here in this area? We certainly think so. Many of the hand and foot injuries reported can be career ending or life changing, but are preventable. Follow up has shown that there is a link here with injuries being sustained when inappropriate or no PPE was used. The supply and use of appropriate PPE is mandatory on vessels subject to the MLC and it’s worth remembering that some PPE can be produced in styles and designs compatible with the aesthetics of a yacht if required! On a much wider scale, a lack of transparency and standardisation globally can affect the collection of data and the issue of under reporting. While the MACI figures may be accurate, we need other accurate figures to compare them to, in order to build a bigger picture across the world as we have in aviation. From December 2024, the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) will be enforcing an amendment so that seafarer deaths will be recorded and reported annually. The MACI and Cayman Islands Shipping Registry produces a number of safety flyers that are publicly available HERE that may be useful. In summary, analysing data can sometimes result in more questions than answers. But even this can lead to interesting and important developments that result in improved safety and reduced incidents and accidents onboard. Key points to take from this report are: Use the correct PPE for the task. Employ approved systems of work and risk assessments for the task. Reporting is key for safety in the future of our industry. Enjoy a night ashore, but don’t over do the cocktails! As always, if you’d like any input on medical training onboard or ashore, or drills that you can run yourselves, please just get in touch. References: https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1145359/Increase-in-incidents-of-deaths-at-sea

James Griffiths - Guest Blog

by Rachel Smith • 6 November 2024
Welcome to our latest guest blog where we’ve been chatting to James Griffiths, General Manager of Ocean Operations for Scenic Group and finding out more about what happens behind the scenes in order to keep a fleet of luxury expedition ships running. Here’s what James told us… As General Manager of Ocean Operations, I’m responsible for the operations of our fleet which includes four ships in service with around 850 colleagues. I currently live in Mumbles, near Swansea in the UK, but due to the nature of my work I spend a significant amount of time living in Croatia. Prior to this role, I spent many years working at sea and worked up through the ranks to Captain and over the last 15 years, my main focus has been on polar expedition travel. I hold a master mariner certificate of competency in addition to a degree in engineering and a post graduate diploma in law. Part of my job is to work with our medical service provider (Red Square Medical) to ensure that our ships are offering medical services that are appropriate for their deployment, and this can often be to some of the most extreme and remote locations around the world. It’s extremely varied, though during the COVID-19 pandemic, I came ashore when our operations paused for a significant period of time. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to lead the restart of our Ocean Operations, which included setting up everything from a company to manage the ships, to selecting our crewing, medical, helicopter and submarine partners and providers, amongst many other things. Our areas of operation, and the nature of our cruises (expedition), plus having aircraft and submersibles onboard some, do mean additional elements involved in the management of these ships. You could say that this current position is more of a happy coincidence than one that I actually planned for! In some ways this is a great positive - I do think it’s possible to plan a little too much and then be disappointed if things don’t go quite the way you had imagined. But there’s no danger of that here!

Paramedic on tour - Simon Lawton heads to Mexico

by Rachel Smith • 3 October 2024
Back in February 2022, we brought you one of our very first guest blogs from Simon Lawton, a Paramedic who has swapped out his ambulance for a Superyacht! You can read the original blog here: https://www.redsquaremedical.com/superyacht-paramedic-a-guest-blog-from-simon-lawton Over the last 2+ years, we’ve followed Simon’s career, and some of you may even recognise him as he does put a Red Square Medical instructor hat on from time to time. But, as for all healthcare professionals, Simon has to keep his skills up to date. So, we asked him to tell us a bit more about how he juggles this along with a rota onboard. Here’s what he told us… I’m originally from Stoke-on-Trent in the UK and trained as a HCPC registered Paramedic. I’ve spent almost 5 years working at sea now, with almost continuous employment on three different vessels, after leaving the ambulance service in 2019. My first role was as a Paramedic/Deck hand on Superyachts, and I now work as a Medical Officer on a maritime vessel. Even before I applied to become a Paramedic, I intended to complete my studies to help find employment in a remote or offshore environment. I had always been attracted to the idea of being able to travel the world while earning a salary. Working at sea has meant that I have travelled extensively, earnt a higher salary, and have a better work/rest balance than would be possible in a role on land. Note: At the time of writing, a qualified Paramedic’s starting pay in the UK was £28,407 and Simon’s old rota was 2 days, 2 nights (all 12 hours) and 4 days off with very inflexible annual leave. This year I decided to carry out some continual professional development (CPD) at a hospital in Mexico, to keep my skills up to date. I was interested in travelling to find out more about how healthcare services are provided outside the UK and Europe. The CPD activity in Mexico allowed me to do exactly that, while caring for and treating a wide variety of patients who had either self-presented in the emergency department, or been conveyed to hospital by ambulance.

Inequalities in CPR on Women

by Rachel Smith • 25 September 2024
Welcome to our September blog, and as we all start (in the UK at least!) to think about adding a few layers for warmth, we’d like to talk about getting naked! Well, to be more specific, getting bra’s off. Fact: Women are dying because bystanders are less likely to carry out CPR on women than men. Research shows that women are 27% less likely to receive CPR than men and if a defibrillator is used, their chance of survival is affected by bra’s being left on. Most of us have never had the chance to train using a female manikin. The #BraOffDefibOn campaign aims to address the inequality in CPR for women and we’re supporting it.

Dr. Will Duffin - Joint Medical Director WEM

by Rachel Smith • 4 September 2024
In August, we brought you a Guest Blog from Mark Hannaford, the founder of World Extreme Medicine. This month, it’s the turn of another of the key WEM faculty members… introducing Dr Will Duffin. Hello everyone, I’m Dr Will Duffin and I’m a GP in Devon in the UK. I’m the Joint Medical Director of World Extreme Medicine (WEM) and the Lead Medic for the US CBS TV show ‘Survivor’ - for Seasons 43, 44, 46 and 48, which is also through WEM. Extreme Medicine is healthcare that is delivered across the full spectrum of remote, austere and challenging environments. This includes high mountains, deep oceans, jungles, deserts, polar, low earth orbit and refugee camps… the list is endless. Being a part of the wider Extreme Medicine community through WEM has been a portal into new worlds of possibility and opportunity in my medical career as an NHS GP. It’s a huge privilege to treat patients in a remote setting. You get to do proper ‘hands on’ medicine that truly tests your clinical skills, risk management and decision making. Even basic techniques and principles done well can transform patient outcomes. That’s the big reward. I graduated from Bristol Medical School in 2008 and completed my GP Training in Cornwall, UK in 2016. In between, I spent 18 months in Australia to gain as much emergency department experience as I could, whilst doing Wilderness Medicine Courses. I landed my first expedition gig 12 years ago when I was post-FY2 (Foundation Years follow on after qualifying as a doctor). I covered a Kilimanjaro Trek after another doctor dropped out at the last minute. Once I had this under my belt, I was able to leverage this experience to get the next trip. So, I soon found myself providing regular medical cover for various commercial and charity sector expeditions. These expeditions have taken me all over the world: Kilimanjaro, the Peruvian Andes, the Himalayas, Northern China, Eastern Europe, Myanmar and Madagascar. One highlight was working as the private doctor for a Luxury Trans-Siberian Train! Though I became frustrated having to constantly wrangle annual leave to go away, so I made the switch to being a freelance (locum) GP, which has given me the flexibility I need. I joined WEM in 2018 after responding to a Facebook Ad for the ‘Survivor’ job. I was invited to a selection weekend in the Peak District, which is when I first met Mark Hannaford WEM founder and CEO and Dr Joe Rowles, WEM’s other Medical Director, and it all went on from there. Early on, I was given the opportunity to lead on the content for the annual World Extreme Medicine Conference and our various podcasts and webinars. Through doing this, I have met a colourful cast of characters; other extreme medics who are as audacious as they are inspirational! We have a lot of fun at the conference every year, learning from one another. https://worldextrememedicine.com/registration/wem-conference-2024 (Note from the RSM team – the conference is highly recommended and well worth a visit!)

Mark Hannaford - Founder and CEO of World Extreme Medicine

by Rachel Smith • 5 August 2024
Last year, the Red Square Medical team descended on the World Extreme Medicine (WEM) conference for the very first time. We’d been aware of this unique organisation for many years, but just not had the chance to get involved. Liz was involved in a panel discussion and spoke at the conference, and we came away literally buzzing with enthusiasm - our first impressions were that WEM is a place with no ego’s, where everyone wants to learn, and is willing to share. We met some of the most fascinating people ever and can’t wait to go back this year. But what about the person who started it all… We spoke to Mark Hannaford, founder of World Extreme Medicine and its far reaching impact. Here’s what he had to say. I’ve been involved in expeditions, working in low resource environments and extreme medicine for the past three decades! My family was made up of generations of seafarers from Cornwall although I was brought up variously in Devon, Antigua in the Caribbean and the Middle East; reflecting my father’s job as a Master Mariner. My father was at one time the youngest captain aboard the UK’s largest registered vessel, and my grandfather was Harbour Master for Malta and the first in that role in Plymouth at the start of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. I wear a number of hats but primarily I am the founder and CEO of World Extreme Medicine, and the annual WEM Conference. I also founded the MSc in Extreme Medicine at the University of Exeter and Graduate Certificate program at Bouvré College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston.

Women's Health

by Rachel Smith • 3 July 2024
Women’s health is a huge topic, while it’s true that in the maritime sector women make up just 2% of seafarers at sea, up to 34% of the shore based staff are female. Looking at the bigger picture, women’s health directly affects just under half of our population globally, and indirectly (whether you like it or not!) the other half, we thought it was worth a blog about some of the issues, and the taboo’s, that could be affecting our maritime workforce and the women in our lives. It's common knowledge that women experience huge hormonal changes at puberty and menopause, both of which can have significant physical and mental health impacts. In the UK, there is a growing discussion and openness about peri-menopause (the years before periods stop altogether) and how for some women, this has devastating effects across all aspects of their lives, including work. Of course men experience changes at puberty, but their later life changes are less significant and generally don’t affect their ability to work. In December 2023 the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a statement to advise that every year, at least 40 million women are likely to experience a long term health problem caused by childbirth. So there’s a good chance that we all know one or more women affected, or if you are female… this could be you. As part of a special series on maternal health, the study showed a high burden of postnatal conditions that persist in the months and years after giving birth. These issues include more than a third of women experiencing pain during intercourse, urinary incontinence (8-31%), anal incontinence (19%), anxiety (9-24%), depression (11-17%), perineal pain (11%), a fear of childbirth (6-15%) and secondary infertility (11%). All in all it doesn’t paint a great picture of life after childbirth for some women. If any of your workers experience these issues, either on or off shore, it could have a significant impact on areas of their working life and it’s something they may be reluctant to open up about. Even before childbirth, we may take it for granted that contraception is available, certainly in the developed world. But in developing countries where sexual violence is not uncommon, contraception is considered lifesaving due to the high level of unsafe abortions carried out. Around 13 million women (and girls) under 20 give birth annually and complications in the pregnancy and birth is a leading cause of death. Consequently abortion is an option, but this carries its own huge risks.

Guest Blog - Wendy Sullivan

by Rachel Smith • 25 June 2024
We just love speaking to and finding out more about the people who inspire us and we guarantee that this month’s blog will not disappoint! We first got in touch with Wendy Sullivan via LinkedIn and thought she seemed like a pretty awesome human. Wendy and her company, Maritime Medical Solutions in Australia, certainly share the same outlook as Red Square Medical. Fast forward a couple of years and we’re now collaborating on a project in Australia and the Pacific Islands. What we’ve learnt along the way is simply fascinating and Wendy has kindly agreed to share her story with us… Here is Wendy’s Guest Blog: I was born in Canada, grew up in Africa and now call Australia my home. I feel lucky to live in paradise where the weather allows us to be on the water year-round. I had to work hard to gain my Australian citizenship and I credit my work in the marine industry with giving me a pathway to stay in Australia permanently. It took years of hard work and uncertainty to gain my residency and is still one of the achievements I am most proud of. I started sailing in Canada and since emigrating to Australia gained my professional and commercial qualifications as a vessel master, marine engine driver, trainer and assessor. I also have a Diploma of Paramedical Science, ship masters medical qualifications, business administration and development and there is still so much more to come.
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