The Importance of Basic First Aid Training
The Importance of Basic First Aid Training
First, what is a skill? The best definition I found is, a learned power of doing a thing competently: a developed or acquired aptitude or ability. (_Merriam-Webster 's Third New International Dictionary Unabridged,_ http://www.mwu.eb.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/mwu) There are so many skills that people should master to make life richer, more meaningful, or simply easier. But to choose a skill that most people have not mastered that I believe everyone should master is Basic First Aid (BFA).
Most people who I know personally which have completed the Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) certification have not completed BFA certification. The mistake in allowing this to happen was very apparent in my first CPR course. I received BFA training as a teenager. Some of the questions asked in the CPR class by students seemed evident to me. Not only that but the fact that people were being certified without knowing these things seemed dangerous to me. For instance, in the case of an accident scene where someone has arterial bleeding, one does not want to start chest compressions before trying to stem the bleeding. A person should know not to move a person with probable neck injury unless not moving them will result in near certain death.
In the workplace not many people are aware of BFA. And in my experience there have been plenty of instances where it was needed. One such time, one of my employees was an epileptic; he fell flat seizing in the copy room, one person ran to call 911, but the others just stood there. BFA had taught me to place something soft under his head (the floors in the copy room were hard ceramic tile); during seizure he could have hit his head hard enough on the floor to cause brain damage. In BFA one is taught to use a hard, strong object to keep the person seizing from biting his, or her tongue.
Another place rife with accidents is the schoolyard. If one is a teacher, knowledge of BFA is definitely
First, what is a skill? The best definition I found is, a learned power of doing a thing competently: a developed or acquired aptitude or ability. (_Merriam-Webster 's Third New International Dictionary Unabridged,_ http://www.mwu.eb.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/mwu) There are so many skills that people should master to make life richer, more meaningful, or simply easier. But to choose a skill that most people have not mastered that I believe everyone should master is Basic First Aid (BFA).
Most people who I know personally which have completed the Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) certification have not completed BFA certification. The mistake in allowing this to happen was very apparent in my first CPR course. I received BFA training as a teenager. Some of the questions asked in the CPR class by students seemed evident to me. Not only that but the fact that people were being certified without knowing these things seemed dangerous to me. For instance, in the case of an accident scene where someone has arterial bleeding, one does not want to start chest compressions before trying to stem the bleeding. A person should know not to move a person with probable neck injury unless not moving them will result in near certain death.
In the workplace not many people are aware of BFA. And in my experience there have been plenty of instances where it was needed. One such time, one of my employees was an epileptic; he fell flat seizing in the copy room, one person ran to call 911, but the others just stood there. BFA had taught me to place something soft under his head (the floors in the copy room were hard ceramic tile); during seizure he could have hit his head hard enough on the floor to cause brain damage. In BFA one is taught to use a hard, strong object to keep the person seizing from biting his, or her tongue.
Another place rife with accidents is the schoolyard. If one is a teacher, knowledge of BFA is definitely
References: Miriam -Webster _(2007) Merriam-Webster 's Third New International Dictionary Unabridged. Retrieved March 2, 2007, from:_ http://www.mwu.eb.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/mwu)