What Is the Diver Medical Screening Form, and Who Has to Sign It?
The form in your enrollment packet
Before an entry-level scuba course begins, dive shops in the U.S. typically ask every student to complete a medical screening questionnaire. Most training agencies use a standardized version developed and maintained through the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society's Recreational Diving Medical Screening System. Understanding how the system works before you sit down with the paperwork saves confusion at the dive shop counter — and this page is about the process, not about any medical question on the form. What any answer means for you is a question for a physician, full stop.
How the screening system is structured
The system has layers. The first is a participant questionnaire: a series of yes/no questions you answer yourself about your health history. If every answer is no, that is generally the end of it — you sign, and the shop keeps the form on file.
If any answer is yes, the questionnaire directs you to follow-up questions, and depending on those, to the second layer: an evaluation by a physician, documented on a medical evaluation form the physician signs. The screening system also includes guidance written for the evaluating physician, because many doctors see few divers and benefit from a structured reference on what diving demands of the body. The UHMS materials bundle all three pieces — participant questionnaire, physician evaluation form, and physician guidance.
A yes answer is not a verdict. It routes the decision to someone qualified to make it. Plenty of people answer yes to something and are subsequently cleared; the point of the system is that a dive instructor is not the person making that call.
What to expect at the physician visit
If you need an evaluation, a few practical points make it smoother:
- Bring the actual forms. The physician needs the evaluation form to sign and benefits from the physician guidance that accompanies it. Do not arrive with nothing and ask for "a note saying I can dive."
- Any licensed physician can complete it, but some are more familiar with dive medicine than others. The Divers Alert Network's health resources are a useful reference library on dive fitness topics, and DAN can help divers find physicians familiar with diving.
- Ask about cost up front. The visit is billed like any other appointment, and coverage varies by insurance plan. Our certification cost estimator includes an option for this expense.
- Expect the conversation to be about diving specifically. Immersion, pressure, exertion, and remoteness from care make diving different from gym exercise, which is why the evaluation exists as its own process. The CDC Yellow Book chapter on dive-related injuries is the federal medical reference on fitness-to-dive considerations, written for clinicians and travelers.
Timing and repeat screening
The questionnaire is not one-and-done. Shops commonly ask for a current form for each new course, and many dive operators ask returning customers to complete one as well. If your health has changed since your last form, the honest move is to answer the current questionnaire accurately and let the process route you where it routes you. A signed medical evaluation also carries a date, and operators may treat older ones as expired — ask the shop what recency they require before you book the physician visit.
The one-sentence version
The screening form is a routing mechanism: all-no answers proceed to class, any yes goes to a physician with standardized forms and guidance in hand. Everything beyond that — what your history means for you as a diver — is between you and your doctor.