I spent two days this week on a St John Ambulance Paediatric First Aid course. This is pretty reasonable on the simple grounds of being a parent of young children, but I also have a germ of an idea of hiring out a room at the local library on a Sunday morning sometime as a kind of pop-up kids’ club. When the weather’s lousy, a Sunday can seem very long and there aren’t so many options around us – Brent Cross shopping centre or watching TV not being very popular choices.
Anyway, I have yet to put this plan into effect, but on the basis I may well do so, I would definitely feel more comfortable bringing my First Aid up to date, especially as I have the opportunity.
It was a good course, an excellent trainer (Tony Thompson) and a good bunch of other trainees – a mix of teachers, childcare professionals, kids club hosts, nannies. The scope of First Aid has indeed changed since I last did a course (about 20 years ago):
- Wounds, even grazes, are washed with water, not antiseptic wipes (as the antiseptic kills good bacteria not just bad bacteria)
- You don’t try and take the pulse before starting CPR – if they’re not breathing, you get on with heart pumps and breaths
- Forget that nonsense about trying to wedge something in the mouth of someone having a seizure – you just leave them to it, putting something soft under their head and clearing away things around them. (There may well also be some other follow-up depending on the situation, of course!)
Timsformational 