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By Genghis the Engineer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1838994
I don't keep score particularly, but having been a first aider since a child, and a lifeguard as a teenager, I've saved one person from drowning, pulled somebody from a burning car, assisted somebody with whiplash injuries from a high speed road collision, patched up a reasonable number of wounds and burns where I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and walked off Snowdon a party of lost hikers around dusk one day.

Never on the other hand done CPR or used a defib. But, I know how to, who knows, I might need to tomorrow.

I am regularly horrified when I realise just how many people have never had any first aid training whatsoever.

G
Colonel Panic, kanga liked this
#1839000
Genghis the Engineer wrote:I am regularly horrified when I realise just how many people have never had any first aid training whatsoever.

G

I have never understood why basic first aid training isn't part of the national curriculum for secondary school pupils. They are usually taught to swim, which is commendable, but FA training is ignored. It isn't as though it would occupy too much time over the academic year.

PW
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By Jim Jones
#1839022
Propwash wrote:
Genghis the Engineer wrote:I am regularly horrified when I realise just how many people have never had any first aid training whatsoever.

G

I have never understood why basic first aid training isn't part of the national curriculum for secondary school pupils. They are usually taught to swim, which is commendable, but FA training is ignored. It isn't as though it would occupy too much time over the academic year.

PW


I had basic resus taught at school 50 odd years ago.

'My' school has it as part of the curriculum. (and the current cohort are expert at lateral flow testing now)

My grandchidren know how to put someone in the recovery position

But yes, it should be part of all learning.
By riverrock
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#1839029
Other than minor cuts & grazes, and looking after lots of drunk people, I've never really needed to use the skills I've been taught. Happy to keep it that way!

I've been through a St John's basic course; RLSS Bronze Medallion (life saving); maritime first aid when working on a passenger ferry; first aid for Duke of Edinburgh Award participants; American Red Cross Lifeguard; University Life Saving society and represented my university in the BULSCA Student National Championships; day courses and biennial refresher training for Street Pastors, Workplace First Aid.

The closest I've come to needing to save a drowning person was during the marine training (handling life rafts in a cold wave pool in Blackpool). One of the other participants had a panic attack, and the sides of the pool are high and not easily held onto. Training kicked in as others jumped in trying to help, I instead went round the side of the pool and pulled her to the side via rope, then organised other participants to help her out (I still have no idea what the instructor was doing).

Casualty care for drunk people as part of Street Pastors is more about looking after the person, keeping them warm and making sure they don't choke than the skills taught on the various courses.

I have been involved in one helicopter rescue, during a Duke of Edinburgh expedition. A fellow participant's knee cap went round the side of her knee. A naval helicopter was on exercise in the area and was tasked to get her. Again - not really first aid as its just keeping person warm and calm.

I totally agree that basic first aid should be part of the school curriculum. You'd have thought that one PE lesson a year could be dedicated to reminding kids how to do CPR (etc).
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By Genghis the Engineer
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#1839039
Again - not really first aid as its just keeping person warm and calm


I think that perhaps you underestimate both how important that is, and how core it is to most emergency response actions.

G
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1839052
Oh I don't -we carry silver blankets and hot soup (at the beginning of a Street Pastor shift, pre-Covid anyway) to help with this but I'd have thought that would be common sense rather that something you'd need to learn on a first aid course. However a lot of First Aid is guided common sense.
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By kanga
#1839062
Propwash wrote:..
I have never understood why basic first aid training isn't part of the national curriculum for secondary school pupils. They are usually taught to swim, which is commendable, but FA training is ignored. It isn't as though it would occupy too much time over the academic year.

PW


It may be related to how much the formally academic National Curriculum (at least in England) has squeezed everything else out of the available school day, in anticipation of the increasingly prescriptive criteria at the next Ofsted Inspection; at least in LEA schools - I gather that Academies are allowed more flexibility, and private schools much more.

And school-organised (let alone -funded) swimming lessons have also been a casualty :(

[at JAM we provide the teachers with visiting school groups with formal paperwok proving that the activities we provided satisfied those academic elements; without it the teachers and the school could be in trouble. The graphics folk at one of the many local aviation companies (who want local youngsters to consider aviation technical careers) provided it for us: it's impressively glossy :) ]