Dive Medical Technician
Diving medicine and hyperbaric support for medical personnel in diving, offshore, maritime, public safety and remote settings. The tier is set by your license, so the credential reflects the clinical skills you already have.
Tiers
| Tier | Who holds it | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|
| DMT-A Advanced | Paramedic, nurse practitioner, physician assistant | Holders already carry advanced airway, vascular access and medication skills under their license |
| DMT-B Basic | EMT | Holders work within EMT scope |
| DMT-C Commercial Diver | Commercial divers who are not EMTs or paramedics | No license, so the course supplies the medical foundation: 40 hours of online academics and a 40-hour skills week with a signed skills portfolio |
Eligibility for DMT-A and DMT-B
You are eligible if you hold a current, unrestricted EMT, paramedic, nurse practitioner or physician assistant license and complete the IBHBOT DMT course at an approved training site within 3 years before you apply. Your license is your skills documentation; no skills checklist, logbook or medical director attestation is required.
DMT-C for Commercial Divers
The DMT-C makes a working commercial diver the medical responder on a diving worksite: assessing a casualty, recognizing diving illness and injury, performing the procedures a diver medic carries out, attending a casualty inside a recompression chamber, and working with a diving physician by phone. No prior medical training is required. Graduates do not become EMTs; the DMT-C is their dive medical qualification.
| Part | Delivery | Hours | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academic program | Online, self-paced | 40 | 16 modules in emergency medicine, pressure science and diving medicine, each with a knowledge check passed at 80 percent |
| Skills week | In person, five days, at an approved training site | 40 | 14 stations and 52 skills, each signed by the instructor who watched it performed |
Academics. Anatomy and physiology, scene safety and basic life support, patient assessment, airway and oxygen therapy, circulation and shock, offshore trauma, medical emergencies, diving physics and physiology, barotrauma, decompression illness, therapeutic recompression and the treatment tables, care under pressure, the diving medical kit and pharmacology, and documentation, telemedicine and evacuation.
Skills week. Patient assessment, BLS and AED, airway adjuncts, bag-valve-mask and supraglottic airway, oxygen and ventilation, chest decompression and chest drain assist, bleeding control, wound care and suturing, IV cannulation and fluids, immobilization and casualty packaging, injections and medication administration, urinary catheterization, casualty handling inside the chamber, and integrated scenarios. The chamber station requires a hyperbaric chamber or an approved simulator.
Completing the course. All 16 modules, all five skills days, a fully signed skills portfolio, a 100-item end-of-course written examination passed at 80 percent, and a final practical assessment. Completing the course makes the diver eligible to apply for the IBHBOT DMT-C board examination, which is separate. A diver has no license to point to, so the signed portfolio is the evidence of competence. A good written score does not substitute for a critical skill.
What it does not do. Every invasive procedure and medication is performed under physician direction or written standing orders. The DMT-C does not authorize independent practice, replace the operation’s own medical protocols, or qualify the holder to operate a hyperbaric chamber.
The DMT Examination
One timed online examination with two forms, DMT-A and DMT-B. You take the form that matches your tier: 150 multiple-choice questions, 125 scored and 25 unscored pilot questions.
- Diving physics, gas laws and pressure physiology
- Decompression theory and dive profiles
- Decompression sickness and arterial gas embolism; barotrauma
- Diver assessment and the dive neurological examination
- Differential diagnosis of diving injuries
- Oxygen administration and field equipment
- Recompression therapy and chamber operations
- Diving operations, field practice and evacuation
- Hazardous marine life and aquatic injuries
- Invasive procedures under pressure (DMT-A form)