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.

Agree. Many parents can't even be bothered feeding their kids and taking them to school. Let's start there, that's the root cause.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education/physical-health-and-mental-wellbeing-primary-and-secondary

My kids did a lesson on CPR in year 6 during that time between end of SATS and end of term. They taught me that CPR involves so much force that ribs are often broken.

Anything else that should be "taught in school".

FFS should we just handover newborns and have done.

Hello.. it's called PARENTING!

I don’t really understand how on the one hand there are people saying it’s already taught in schools, but on the other there are people saying it can’t possibly be taught in schools, there’s just no capacity etc. That just doesn’t stack up.

Regardless, I did suggest not just schools, but other community settings too. I appreciate you can google things, but I think there’s a difference between just Googling something and doing an actual course - I think people would have more confidence in the information and their ability to use it if they had done an actual course rather than just looked on the internet. I’m sure there’s some psychology there, probably to do with being able to ask questions, and also because of that inner voice that tells you not to believe everything you see on the internet!

I think the main issue is that on average, the general public have lost a lot of basic knowledge, and the confidence to use what knowledge they do have. I’m just trying to think of ways to improve that long-term, for everybody’s benefit.

The problem is that the shit parents don't do first aid courses or take their kids to scouts to learn this stuff. Schools should have far more funding so these basics can be taught. I live in a horrible estate and lots of parents round here are doing the bare minimum.

My kids have done basic first aid at scouts and Dd has done more first aid inc resus through cadets (although I think the cadets syllabus out of step with NHS/resus council training).

I know my mum's head teacher (1961ish) insisted that all girls did o'level biology because as women they were likely to end up responsible for their own and their families' health. I'm not sure they were wrong.

Yes!!!!!
Recently a mum brought her perfectly healthy 13 yr old into urgent care as she didn't know how to clean a small graze after he fell over

Too many kids leave school with shocking levels of literacy, numeracy and general knowledge. I'd rather schools concentrated on that, to be honest.

OP does say quite clearly – in school or community.
(I don’t know any kids who have had first aid training at school).

And for anyone saying how can you get a GP appt – well, they either phone up saying xyz, to which the GPs feel obliged to say ‘yes come in straight away’ as it could be serious (whereas someone else would know it isn’t), or they go to A&E and clog that up. Either way, it’s an unfair use of resources for the patients, and makes for a shit workload for the doctors.

I agree with your thinking, OP.

I remember one-off sessions in school assemblies re things like water safety (don’t jump in to a river as weeds, don’t swim in quarries as its dangerous, don’t skate on iced-up rivers). I learnt it, and kept the leaflets they gave us for years. We did nutrition I suppose in Home Economics, swimming lessons in PE, had a green cross code visitor/assembly, and I’m sure we had emergency services coming in to say things like ‘999 for emergencies only’. All in all it made for sensible children. Yes my parents reinforced all of these, but I remember the assemblies too.

I got some of my ‘life’ education through brownies/guides – eg regular first aid training, and a course at the fire station. Realise not everyone does those activities so wouldn’t always come across it there. I also know from doing them that I should do eg a first aid refresher as a (quite old) adult as these are crucial skills and there might not be someone else around who can help.

You just have to look the news to see that not everyone knows basics such as these, and it costs call-outs and lives.
Like that one in the last couple of years where the mother of the dead teenager wanted the quarry he’d died swimming in to be fenced off as it was dangerous to swim in…. I have also seen numerous kids who could do with things like road safety teaching (cars kill and your phone won’t bounce it off, children). Lots of entitled people also expect most things to be done for them and it is only compounded by ignorance of the basics.

Even compulsory online courses would be a help!

And to a PP... I also live on one of those horrible council estates! I watch agog as they call paramedics for a headache or something tiny.

And a last point;
Google makes it too easy to get the wrong end of the stick etc, so agree OP, a class gives you more confidence.

And a last-but-one;
Have just put a message in local fb group (that estate) to ask if anyone knows of any and if not, should we organise one?

I don’t really understand how on the one hand there are people saying it’s already taught in schools, but on the other there are people saying it can’t possibly be taught in schools, there’s just no capacity etc. That just doesn’t stack up.
Because schools are all having to juggle a million balls so cover a whole range of social topics that someone decided needed shoehorning in.

It doesn't mean a decent coverage is done. It means the box is ticked for now, and then something else will be in the headlines and people will shout "why can't they teach this in schools?" and yet another thing will be added.

@LolaSmiles yes a lot of parents don't actually know what their children are learning in school because the usual answer to "What did you do at school today?" is met with "nothing" or "dunno".
My daughter's primary had plenty of special assemblies - stranger danger, road safety, pantasaurus first aid etc. Often these assemblies were given by guest speakers - the Police, NSPCC, St John's Ambulance etc.
Did I know this from my daughter?
No.
I would usually find out by reading the termly newsletter several weeks later.

Maybe we need a return to government adverts like we used to have in the 70s and 80s.

Last time I was at the GPs I noticed posters like "not all coughs and colds need antibiotics" which is the sort of info that might help.