To think basic healthcare should be taught in schools?

[Thriwit]

I guess as part of PSHE or whatever?
And/or there could be community classes or even online courses for anybody?

There just seems to be a lack of basic healthcare knowledge nowadays. Just things like treating a minor cut, burn, bruise, or sprain; dealing with a sore throat, fever, headache, acid reflux, constipation; recognising and treating minor childhood illnesses etc. When to go to a pharmacist, doctor, A&E…

I suppose decades of free healthcare means that as a society we’re now used to
just pleading ignorance and seeing a doctor for everything, rather than just treating minor issues at home. A little more knowledge would hopefully empower people to be able to look after themselves better, and hopefully reduce unnecessary visits to GPs and hospitals.

I had a bingo list of the replies I’d get to this, and I haven’t been disappointed!

I do teach my kids this, but I’m also aware that not every parent does, or has the ability/knowledge/confidence to.

I also appreciate that schools can’t teach everything, but they do have PSHE-type lessons scheduled in, and surely this kind of thing is a huge benefit to society as a whole? It wouldn’t just save doctors’ visits, but improve the health of people in general. Proper care of minor ailments, and knowing when to seek help, helps prevent those minor things turning into major things.

Some people absolutely do go to the doctor with minor things, I know this from both talking to people who have done so and from friends who are GPs saying it happens.

You've already been told that first aid is on the primary curriculum for PSHE....

I do teach my kids this, but I’m also aware that not every parent does, or has the ability/knowledge/confidence to

Many people have no business having children, but the answer to that isn’t to transfer responsibility onto schools. If they’re not able to teach their kids about basic healthcare then there’ll be a billion other things they’re also not doing - schools cannot do all of it.

Society has to have some way of stepping in to try and save the kids from the effects of their useless parents but it’s got to be more than just schools.

Just things like treating a minor cut, burn, bruise, or sprain; dealing with a sore throat, fever, headache, acid reflux, constipation; recognising and treating minor childhood illnesses etc. When to go to a pharmacist, doctor, A&E…

but I’m also aware that not every parent does, or has the ability/knowledge/confidence to.

If they don't have knowledge of the above you gave as examples, I think we have bigger problems than what schools should teach!

Dr Google has taught me a lot of this stuff in adulthood. We have quicker and easier access to more information in one place than any other generation has had before. If people can manage to post their trip to A&E (complete with sadface) on Facebook or TikTok then I’m pretty sure they could also finger-tap their way towards a cure for constipation.

I have 3 colleagues who boast about letting the schools potty train their 2nd or 3rd kids because “they did so well at it”.

These are naice middle class people.

Safety nets work when people generally accept that parenting is for parents and not schools, but now the line is so blurred that that net has to catch more and more and more people. It’s dire.

Another thing to teach at school? Every week there's something new on here. Financial management, how to behave around digs, car maintenance, how to know if you're in an abusive relationship. And on. Seriously schools have no time. They're on their knees. Parent your own children.

I'm assuming OP didn't suggest this because she thinks that adults now don't have this knowledge, and therefore can't pass it on.

I’m fairly certain that quite a lot of parents on here would be quite happy with that plan.

It's the parents that need educating some of the time. Teaching it in schools might help with future generations.

I think it would be useful for lots of adults to have this kind of lesson, to be honest.

My SIL took FIL to A&E with a sore ear last weekend. It had been sore overnight, not agonising, not lasting weeks, just a bit sore. No underlying condition. Sat there for hours to be told it was probably a virus and to take paracetamol; by the evening he was absolutely fine again.

I don't know how you get that information to people though. They need a grown up version of Dr Ranj!

If this is the case, then fantastic!
I have DC in Y7 and Y5, and neither have done first aid at school, so I’m not sure what’s happened there. But it’s great if at least some kids are being taught it!

Yeah... why not? It's not like we've got anything else to teach.

Yes, this was my thinking

Why can't parents teach this stuff?

Some parents are clueless

This is the issue really, lots of what used to be basic life skills like first aid, cooking etc were passed down from parents to their children as well as being part of the curriculum. That doesn't happen anymore in the same way, lots of parents have no idea about basic first aid and healthcare so there's no hope of them passing this onto their children or doing it at home. Sure it's easy enough for many to look online and learn and then work through it with their children, but there are a fair amount who wouldn't be able to do this for various reasons.

Something would have to give in the curriculum and schools would need better funding so it wouldn't be another responsibility for teachers but instead professionals could come in and teach it- but I do think as schools are the one catch all for children and a chance to try and level the playing field; it would be valuable. It just shouldn't be a burden teachers have to cram in to an already hectic and ridiculous workload.

WE CANT TEACH EVERYTHING IN SCHOOL.

This used to be an accepted fact. Now people say "well the parents don't know so we have to teach the kids". But this doesn't really work because unless the kids are learning and practising it regularly (no time for this) they don't actually learn anything.

Much better would be a public health campaign, good quality short tutorials for adults to access when needed. Or a website (like the NHS one that already exists...).

It’s the weekly “schools should also teach…” thread. I’m just waiting for the post suggesting schools should teach kids how to make their beds.

My colleague who teaches PSHE doesn't have enough time to teach all the things she's meant to as it is! I recall that at my school, we briefly had First Aid (four or five one-hour lessons) for Year 7, but then new national guidance was issued and we had to remove a lot of the stuff that we'd added as a school.

My mam taught me all that. Granted she was a nurse but even so, it was never expected that it was taught in school.
I try to do the same with my girls as they grow too.
I've only been to A&E once in my life and that was because the walk in centre made me go (allergic reaction). I am usually able to treat most minor ailments at home/using the pharmacy and that is 100% down to what my mam has taught me.

WE CANT TEACH EVERYTHING IN SCHOOL

Well of course not, but it depends if you think school should just prepare children for the workplace and a career or whether it should also help prepare them for life. I left teaching very soon after qualifying as it was soul destroying, expect its even worse now. Not a critic of teachers at all, it's just schools used to be more of a combination of skills that would see children well as adults and academics- now it's about churning out more workers bees and the gap between people with engaged parents and those who have no clue themselves is growing.

This^
Well, I don’t know where you live OP but it’s not England for sure. Cuts and bruises??? I was waiting my appointment for acid reflux 4 weeks. And don’t tell me about home remedies, it turned out I needed antibiotics.

No, this is what the BBC is for. The problem is too many other channels.

On another thread it’s being suggested that there’s no need for Maths teachers as the subject could better be learned via YouTube videos. Perhaps the same could be said for basic healthcare. Or indeed anything.

This