What will it take to make you learn First Aid skills?
Are we getting the message?
Despite extensive media and press campaigns it seems that we still aren’t getting it. I learned CPR and resuscitation skills whilst at school for my Royal Life Saving Society Bronze and Pool Bronze Medallions, and as a Red Cross Cadet. Following this came training in the Forces and Civil Service. After this I went to work for the Ambulance Service. I honestly don’t think I ever had need of these skills until that point.
Whilst at work, the week before joining the Ambulance Service, my father passed away some forty miles away from my workplace. In the rather lengthy time that it took for an Ambulance to arrive, my mother and her brother battled to perform CPR on him under the capable and calm direction of the emergency operator. They had little idea of these skills before this incident, and any knowledge was rusty. Of course, although he couldn’t be saved as it was an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, they had the comfort of knowing that they had tried.
The point for me, looking back, is that there is no excuse for not having these skills. People associate having to pay large amounts of money for First Aid Training, and this need not be the case. You do not have to get a full certificate, there are other options. See our website for some ideas.
In the end, Sue Killen of St John Ambulance says, “there is no excuse for not knowing exactly how to save someone’s life.”
- “It’s devastating to find that over half of parents wouldn’t have the first aid confidence to save their own child’s life.
- “And it’s not just parents. Over 40% of people admit that it would take something as severe as the death of a loved one to make them learn first aid.”
Powerful words. And true. Very true. Please get the message!