St. John Ambulance - First Aid Course (Part 1)

Activity: St. John Ambulance - First Aid Course
Date: July 21st-24th
Time: 4 days (9 am - 5:30pm )
Type: First Aid course
Organization: St. John Ambulance (LINK)

Hours: 10 hours - Creative
             20 hours - Action     

I just took the St. John Ambulance First Aid Course last week, and will be taking the certification test Friday next week (August 7th) which will involve :

•  A multiple choice test about different situations a First Aider might encounter (basically the non hands on stuff in the First Aid Manual
• A test on diagnosing and bandaging different fractures, sprains and bleeding from a hypothetical scenario
• Cardio - Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) for an Adult with a Resusci Anne manikin

Wish me luck! :D

Now on to what our class and I did on during the course! ( I should also mention at this time that I didn't take any photos during the class, since it would be a bit weird and rude to do, thus this will mostly be just a textual, journal - like post), with a few photos from after the event

Day 1 - July 21
On the first day, we met with our first aid instructor, Melissa and I received all of my bandaging supplies (4 triangular bandages, a 2 inch roller bandage,  a 3 inch roller bandage and gauze) first aid book and CPR face shields.

We first learned the principles of first aid using the 3P's:
Preserve life
Prevent further injury
Promote recovery

Followed by the Primary Survey of the person at the scene using the acronym DR. ABC:

D - Danger - Check the area for any hazards (ie glass, chemicals, fire etc) first before going to help or you could be hurt as well.

R - Response - See if they respond to your voice when asking "Are you okay?". (If not, shake them by their shoulders and see if they respond). If not, assume they are unconscious and move quickly to the following steps.

. - Stay  - This isn't an official step, but one our instructor added. Ask someone nearby to stay closeby, just in case you need extra help or need someone to run off to get something or call 999 while you are busy (with performing CPR, bandaging, giving others directions etc)

A - Airway - Is their airway open and clear? If not, open their airway by lifting their chin and tilting their head if unconscious or remove the thing blocking their airway if conscious. Only move on to the next step when airway is clear.
B - Breathing - Are they breathing normally? (look, listen and feel to check) If not and unconscious, call 999 move straight to CPR. If yes, move to the next step.
C - Circulation - Are there any signs of severe bleeding? If yes, control the bleeding and call 999. If not, the person has no serious life treating injuries and you can move on to the Secondary Survey.

I am not going to type out the secondary survey here, since it is basically asking the person what happened to get a better idea of what first aid needs to be administered, this post has gotten very wordy and the people at St. John's have already done a much better job explaining it one their website HERE.

We then learned about the reef knot,which is a knot that is easy to tie quickly and tightens very easily when pulled on, but can come apart quickly if pulled a certain way, making it a very useful in First Aid.

We then started off with some basic slings and bandaging, which I will explain more of in the next post!

- Rebecca