This weekend was such a busy one. One of the highlights was completing a twelve hour first aid course. Now, I’ve got to admit, a first aid course doesn’t exactly sound like it would be the epitome of one’s social events on a weekend and I wasn’t looking forward to the long day. Especially as the cooler weather and longer nights draw me in to hibernation. I was also thinking that I’ve completed the course before and wasn’t entirely sure that I needed to do it again. I am so glad that I did though, as I had shamefully forgotten so much. They also have changed some of the rules/regulations/recommendations, so it’s good to stay up to date. For my job, it’s really important that I am a competent first aider, but I believe that everybody should know first aid. A lot of the time it’s not going to even be in work when you will need to whip out those first aid skills. How many times have you scorched yourself on the oven? Accidents can happen at any time, anywhere, so it’s good to be clued up. They say that the most common time to go into cardiac arrest is during the hours of four AM and six AM. Where are you normally during these hours? At home! It’s really great to have an idea (even if it’s just a rough one!) of what to do should you find yourself in such a situation. We practiced CPR before lunchtime on two dummies. One child/adult sized and one a small baby. I’m not going to lie, I was a little worried about giving the rescue breaths to a dummy that probably a gazillion other people had slobbered over, but after a thorough wipe with anti bac, I decided it was safe! It was definitely worth practicing as actually you have to push quite hard and in the right place, so I’m glad we had a practice.

We covered so much during the course from high temperatures, grazes, embedded objects, right through to the recovery position. I found it so interesting and a complete eye opener. I think it’s really important to know what to do if you see a baby choking or a child unconscious, because these situations need to be treated differently to adults. You can actually make things a whole lot worse if you try abdominal thrusts on a baby. There is a great website for the Child Accident Prevention Trust that can keep you up to date on things that you may not have realised are potentially dangerous. Their aim is to lower the amount of serious accidents and deaths in children by educating of the risks. I think it’s a great idea and well worth a nosey.

Another pearl of wisdom that I picked up from the course is registering your phone to text 999. It’s such a great idea because as much as I hope it would never happen, you could find yourself in a situation where you need to be incognito or have low phone signal. It’s easier for a text to go through if signal is low and you can send a clearer message.

We also talked about having a fire escape plan in place for the home, as well as the workplace. Having an escape route at home isn’t something that I had really thought about before, but I think it’s worth thinking about and having a chat with your family because you never know if you will ever need one!

I had a great day polishing up my first aid skills and luckily one of my friends was doing it too, so we snuck in a tasty lunch and huge dinner afterwards. It was great to have a catch up and stuff my face, which lets be honest is one of my most favourite things to do!

If you haven’t guessed already, I would highly recommend completing a first aid course because I really feel that it’s something that could come in handy one day and are far more detailed than watching Vinnie Jones do thirty compressions to Staying Alive!
L x