St John Ambulance

Today I went on a St John Ambulance first aid course for all ages, so most of us had never been on a first aid course before. We started off with our instructor asking us about our expectation for the course and what we wanted to learn, which included procedures such as CPR (learn more here), dressing cuts and wounds and assessing emergency conditions. We then went through the basic theory and mindset behind acting in a an emergency, and then on to the first aid, which included practicals on each other and with specialist equipment.

I won't go into the specifics of the course, partly because I think that anyone who can definitely should go on a first aid course, and I can strongly recommend St John Ambulance (great staff, excellent facilities and comprehensive course) and secondly because it is much better to see it done and practice (on scarily lifelike dummies) than to read about it on a screen.

Having said that, I found that one of the most valuable things you take away from the session (aside from a pair of latex gloves and a face shield for CPR) is confidence. Just looking around the practice room, I noticed that one by one as a group we began to do the chest compressions with confidence, mean it when they shout out "I need you to call an ambulance immediately!" and wrap the bandages with diligence. As our instructor said, just simple knowledge can save lives. 

I enjoyed learning about the first aid so much, not to mention the feeling of reassurance that you have a bit of concrete knowledge in the area, that I'm looking into taking a longer course that covers more scenarios, even considering volunteering with them, and I'll keep you posted. If anyone is interested, I can definitely recommend, even if the dummies are a bit creepy!

Thank you for reading!