Is this normal on a First Aid course *[Warning: graphic content, concerns child injuries and death]

[Justjoinedforthis]

I just attended a paediatric first aid course, and the video content has left me feeling really sick. Videos of drowned children being given unsuccessful CPR, a video of a woman being killed by falling masonry, a baby having heart failure with parent doing cor wrong...a lot of them seemed to be from a site called the YNC which I googled just now, and it seems to be some hardcore porn site which also has horrible graphic injuries.
The trainer seemed really nice but the videos (and there were many many more awful ones like this) seemed unnecessary and horrible.
Is this the norm? I don’t know whether to say something.

Ok glad I am not just being a wuss! I will speak to my manager about it tomorrow to discuss best course of action.

Not normal but maybe helpful, I wish mine had been a bit more graphic in a way because when faced with the need to use the skill I was taken aback by the amount of blood coming from a child and was slower and in shock. I might have been anyway but the videos and demos had been so sterile I remember thinking it wasn't realistic.

(Child in question had complex protruding broken arm but totally survivable injuries)

Bloody hell who was running the course Jigsaw?

I am also a clinician and have never seen this. Definitely complain.

I've been on lots of paediatric first aid courses and never come across anything like that. Sounds horrific

You might want a trigger warning on this hun.
Sorry you had to go watch it all, sounds horrific!

I have been on a couple of courses over the years too and as PP said that sounds way over the top . Some I have been to have been to false imo so if you did come across a accident you would not know what to do , but they sound like they are designed to scare the buggery out of you which is counterproductive

Definitely not normal, I've done lots of courses with different providers over the years and the only "real life" video I've seen is the Australian surfer agonal breathing one referred to above. If they show videos they are acted out reconstructions.

This sounds awful. I’d find this really upsetting. I’ve done a few first aid courses for work (teacher), some have been quite lengthy and I’ve never been shown anything like you’ve described.

I'm an ex copper (last 5yrs) and was never shown anything like that, and we expected to be confronted with all sorts.

Seriously inappropriate, agree with the complaint. It's unnecessary.

I've done St John and Red Cross at different points (and RLSS back in the last century.) We did have videos, but they we usually things lile someone having an accident at work - falling off a chair instead of using a stool, chemical spill, tripping over a left-open filing cabinet, electrical shock, hit by golf ball, asthma attack, and other likely situations, usually ending at the point you, as first-aider come to give aid. Then a discussion about what hazards there were, what would you do. Sometimes a pause mid-scenario, and then carry on to see what happens next.

But no scenes of it being done really badly and people actually dieing.

I’ve done a fair few Ofsted compliant paediatric first aid courses over the years and never come across videos like that before. Unless you were given warnings I’d of been really upset, I’m a fainter with stuff like this and it’d given everyone on the course practical experience. Definitely need to complain.

Also ex police here and never had that on my first aid courses

I’d not be happy with that although have dealt with some not very nice things.

Had school first aid too and not seen anything like that either

Not normal. been on at least 3 courses. Sure it was a legitimate one?

Definitely not. Due to a cock-up during my college course we accidentally had to do 3 first aid training courses in a year and none of them were like that. The only videos we saw at one was a demonstration on a dummy and a couple of simulation emergencies like someone splashing in a pool to get help and someone walking out of cardboard house on fire.

Last one I did was pretty awful. Trainer didn't even stop talking about traumatising things when staff walked out in tears. In one case a member of staff had to leave, when she came back the trainer revisited the content as "she's missed it". (not vital, not the CPR or how to use a defibrillator or something)
We did complain afterwards.

WTF?! No absolutely not normal, please complain! Horrible for everyone, but imagine if that were delivered to someone who had lost a child for example! The employer is really leaving themselves open to litigation if someone is re-traumatised like that.

I've done a fair few First Aid courses over the decades run by different orgnaisations and have never come across anything like that.

I do hope you will raise it with whoever commissioned the course.

Well he was hardly going to come across as creepy was he?

I've done different company first aid courses and as everyone has said, this is very wrong.

Sounds awful, definitely give feedback to your manager.

Wonder if it's the same council run one I went to. The teacher loved himself a little too much, rushed through it and in the end showed us Bondi Beach videos of people getting CPR after drowning. I was quite shaken after those videos, don't think I could have coped with the children ones.

I've done loads of first aid courses and have never had stuff that bad! Probably the worst one I did was a couple of years ago which did have some fairly 'difficult' videos, one of a horrible accident, a newborn baby with a life threatening undiagnosed condition (which was a horrible 999 call to listen to) and a man who nearly drowned in Australia, but no one actually died!!!

And all of the courses I have ever done the facilitator has always said that if someone finds something to triggering they can leave and come back when they are ready.

Who organised the course, was it a company?

I'm a serving copper and like the ex police here we have not been shown any of these. There's some that aren't particularly pleasant, but not like you describe. Even the ones on Taser course weren't that bad.
It's just as worrying not just the content but where they came from.
The trainer sounds nice but it may be that he has little say over the content of the lessons and is just the deliverer of the sessions if that makes sense.

Bloody hell who was running the course Jigsaw?

This made me LOL a bit

I did the standard first aid at work course and remember seeing a pretty graphic break, but that was the extent.

This sounds a bit off, maybe make an enquiry to whichever board is running the course to see if this is now the norm.