My SCUBA Diary

A Description of First Aid Training

First aid training addresses the primary control of an illness or injury. The care is often administered by someone who is skilled in life saving methods and the care of injury and illness but isn’t a specialized medical practitioner. The care provided can save a life, or it may render the patients condition more secure and be an aid to their recovery.

The first aider has been trained how to administer care, and control the situation until paramedics arrive on the incident. Satisfactory first aid often begins with common sense measures; people often discover some of the fundamental skills through everyday experiences: Treating a burn or cleaning a wound, for instance. At times the primary treatment needed for a casualty might be invasive or hazardous to the patient if not administered carefully, for these reasons effectual first aid requires training.

Can Everyone Benefit from First Aid Training?

Yes. First aid training is useful for anyone and everyone because you can never tell when circumstances might arise where first aid care is required. Sometimes, during a critical situation, the emergency services telephone operator may deliver straightforward first aid advice while the paramedics are on route. It is at some point in these vital situations that people are often unable to do something because of anxiety, panic or shock.

It’s at that moment that the benefits of valuable first aid training become abundantly plain.

Specialised Marine First Aid Training

SCUBA diving and other marine activities present an additional set of opportunities for injury and accident and so require specialist first aid training. Trainees must learn to understand how drowning occurs, the effects of hypoxia and be able to recognise secondary complications caused by near drowning that may lead to serious illness or death.

How to Get First Aid Training

Numerous first aid training courses are operated by community organisations such as the Red Cross , St John Ambulance and The Scout Association but also by industry organisations like First Response Training.

What Training Courses are offered?

There are two core levels of first aid training:

The first is Emergency Aid for Appointed Persons training which covers the most frequent scenarios, it may also include education on more significant conditions like cardiac arrest and profuse bleeding. A recognised assessment is not usually carried out

The second is First Aid at Work training, the primary training takes 3 days and the regular review class takes 2 days. This course covers a broad range of first aid procedures, and HSE approved organisations will carry out a recognised assessment. The training establishment will give you a certificate for this training which will last for three years and then re-certification is essential.