You will have been reading about the existential crisis currently facing ambulance trusts across the country causing huge delays in attending medical emergencies. 

There is no better time than now to talk about why first aid is important and why learning how to administer it is even more important. 

 

First Aid is the initial help or assistance given to someone who is injured or ill up until the point that professional help arrives to take over or the person recovers well enough to be discharged at the scene. 

 

There are three basic tenets of first aid which should be taught during first aid training, and which should be at the forefront of a first responders mind when giving first aid. 

 

These three important principles are: 

 

 

The main responsibility of someone giving first aid is to try and preserve the life of the injured person by giving the correct first aid treatment. This will initially involve conducting a primary assessment of the casualty to ascertain dangers and then checking for life threatening conditions first; Airway, Breathing and Circulation. If live-saving interventions are indicated such as CPR these should be started without delay along with alerting Emergency Medical Services and fetching for life-saving equipment such as first aid kit or an Automated External Defibrillator. 

 

 

To prevent the patient from deteriorating their condition must be kept stable whilst waiting for the emergency services to arrive. The main responsibilities during this phase are monitoring the patient’s condition, placing them in safe and comfortable position, provide comfort and re-assurance, prevent any further injury, and continue to apply first aid treatments as of a first responder in this stage include placing casualty in a comfortable and safe position, providing comfort to casualty, preventing further injury, and applying first aid techniques as appropriate. 

 

 

Once first aid treatment has been given the first aid responder should now focus on attempting to relieve pain (comfort and reassurance and body positioning) and take any other steps that might aid the recovery process. 

 

 

As you can tell from everything above giving first aid is important because it can contribute to saving the life of the patient and ensuring that they get prompt and effective treatment from the emergency services. 

 

A notable example is the urgent need to give CPR once a responder has determined that a casualty is not breathing. Early CPR is crucial in reviving a patient’s circulation when they are in cardiac arrest to give them the best chance of survival. A casualty who does not get CPR before emergency services arrive is less likely to survive than someone who does. 

 

 

The easiest and most effective way to learn how to do first aid is to attend a first aid training course in your local area with a reputable training provider.