First Aid Training - Never Enough?

[nannynick]

Tonight has been full of drama and brought home to me however many First Aid courses you have done (I have done many over the years) when an incident occurs you may not cope as well as you think.

Both my mother and myself are trained in First Aid, but we didn't do DRABC immediately... I did DRAB and tried to get capiliary refill - but couldn't tell, so didn't know if I needed to start chest compressions on our 87 year old casulty. We did call an ambulance and paramedic was with us within 4 minutes (it seemed like at least 15 minutes - first time of having to call an ambulance, and the time really seems long, though in reality they are quick!).

Casulty is in hospital, and I think that because we did SOMETHING, rather than NOTHING, he is still alive... though thinking about the incident, it should have gone a lot smoother, given that two of us had First Aid training. Just goes to show that in an emergency, you forget to do things you were taught, though a lot does come to your mind, thus end result in this case was that the casulty lived.

Having not been involved in an incident before, this was the first time of putting my training to the test. Casulty lived this time, I hope next time goes as well, perferably with me remember more of things that should be done.

I think you did incredibly well. How ever much training you have, you won't know how you cope until it happens. You phoned the ambulance and started emergency treatment, and as a result, the person lived. Give yourself a huge pat on the back! I have seen professionally trained people freeze up in that situation and do less then you. It takes a huge amount of practise and experience before professionals such as paramedics really know what they're doing. Well done!

You did well. Im a trained nurse but its a very different matter resuscitating a plastic dummy and a real person isnt it. I have resuscitated quite a few people but it goes differently every time and unless you do it every day e.g. as a paramedic Im not sure it can ever be smooth. Well done. I think you get full stars for doing it. I went to a man laying in the road once who had a full crowd around him and not one person was doing anything even talking to him.

Thanks, good to know that even the professionals will freesze up/forget to do things. Real life situation is certainly different from a dummy on the floor of a training centre.

I've also had to do "the business" for a man who had collapsed, and had done my previous first-aid course about 2 years before. Putting something into practice on a real person, with all the awful noises, dribble, blood etc. etc. is nothing like what we do on the plastic dummy.

I did my first-aid course again this year, and we were actually given more information on the state a patient might actually be in (information which I wish I'd had before).

Well done nannynick, it's darned scarey, isn't it.