First aid course

.

Parents
  • Do a course, but I think a one day course will give you more questions than answers. You probably need a 3 day course to become sufficiently confident that you could provide first-aid cover in a workplace. 

    Even then, I found I wanted to know more, because I wanted to be as sure as possible I would do the right thing. 

    Almost straight away I had a call from someone exhibiting symptoms which didn't match anything on the course. Luckily you can always call in other staff to provide extra assistance.

    Most of the time, it was silly accidents with things like mugs or drinking glasses, resulting in cut fingers. You still have to glove up, though. You soon learn to take your patient's mind off things by asking them questions, though it is hard to actually listen to them as you are treating them. So I would get the info I needed first while putting on gloves, then hit them with largely pointless queries that I ignored the answers to, whilst cleaning and dressing a wound.

    The course gave me the confidence to dash across the road one Christmas to help an elderly neighbour who had fallen, resulting in a head injury, loss of consciousness and fitting. That was a 999 job. 

    There was also a kid who fell at a party, suffering a deep cut which wouldn't initially stop bleeding. Lots of other adults were fussing but not really helping and the poor child was getting even more distressed.

    I was able to step in and explain what we needed to do. The others seemed quite relieved. 

    I got a great deal from volunteering, but I always had a lingering nagging at the back of my mind that the next thing might put me out of my depth. 

    I agree that in an ideal world, everyone should do basic first aid. 

  • Hi DongFeng5

    You sound like just the kind of person I would want around if I ever needed emergency help.

  • That's a very kind compliment, but at the very same time, somehow it feels like a lot of responsibility (which is crazy, I know, it makes no sense).

    I'm only faking when I get it right

Reply Children
  • That does not sound crazy at all.  I know what you mean.  It was one of the aspects of first aid that I never quite became comfortable with: the responsibility.  I regularly asked questions at training about responsibilities and was always told that as long as you followed the training protocols you would be ok.  But I still asked again and again because I am a worrier and an over thinker.  One of the good things about working with a first aid organisation is that you always work in pairs.

    One lasting comment that did make me feel better about the responsibility was that if you have someone who has stopped breathing then anything you do is unlikely to make the situation worse.  If they have stopped breathing then it's very unlikely that they will start breathing again without any intervention so at least trying to help them to breathe again is better than nothing.