Teaching Volunteer First Aid?

beta_medic88

beta_medic88

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Alright, I need everyone's assistance.

I'm trying to put together a basic first aid lecture to give to students and faculty at schools in my area, and I was wondering if anyone had advice as to what topics to cover, common injuries to touch on, or ways to approach young kids who probably do not have much knowledge of medicine. I was thinking of talking about common sports injuries like bloody noses, sprained ankles, maybe concussions, things like that.

Any pointers or tips?

Anyone ever do something like this?
 
What age group? You will have to adapt your education far differently for a 6, 7, 8 year compared to a 14, 15, 16 year old.
 
You will have to adapt your education far differently for a 6, 7, 8 year
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That really should only consist of "Go find an adult to call 911 and don't touch anything red, wet, and sticky"
 
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Sasha said:
That really should only consist of "Go find an adult to call 911 and don't touch anything red, wet, and sticky"
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Surprisingly these young ones seem to be better at learning basic first aid like CPR than the high schoolers who tend to want to joke around rather than look uncool by paying attn.
 
I believe it will be mostly 13-16 year olds, but I'm also planning a talk for adults like athletic coaches, teachers, and staff in case the kids have injuries. So I guess any pointers on either one, a kids version and then one for adults, would help. It would be really basic stuff, and I'm trying to keep it under an hour presentation.
 
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Please do not take this as disrespectful but with your limited education and experience and as you are not a teacher this will be a difficult undertaking. Really it is better to have someone with more than book experience do these types of programs.

Some basics: you will need an outline of what you want to cover. Make sure you have some props such as splints, etc. Best is something they would have available rather than what is on the ambulance. Be careful about talking CPR or AED if you are ot a certified instructor.
 
Here in the NWT all first aid instructors have to be certified by either the Red Cross or St John's Ambulance.
 
Just be careful this doesn't come back to bite you. You are opening yourself up to a bit of liability. My suggestion would be to create a detailed lesson plan and content outline but preferably obtain an instructor certification.

As far as kids vs. adults. Keep it simple. Teach the kids how to keep them selves safe and how to differentiate between what needs an adult and what needs EMS. For the adults I would suggest sticking to ABCs and knowing when to call EMS. Getting into athletic taping and sprain/strain assessment is a whole other world.

Just my 0.02
 
I'm currently looking into getting Red Cross Instructor Certified. Maybe they'll have a good outline of topics to cover.

I understand this could be a tricky subject, but I wouldn't be trying to necessarily "certify" anyone in first aid; rather I just want to raise the awareness of basic injuries and promote seeking further education such as CPR/AED certification.
 
When you do your instructor course they should provide you with an instructor manual that will provide you with everything you need. Even if you are not "certifying" you are still providing education and if someone says "well beta_medic88 told me to do this in this situation" you could be in trouble.

Remember to be found negligent there need to be several criteria met. 1) there must be damage 2) the action must be the proximal cause of the damage 3) there must have been a duty to act 4) there must have been a breach of the standard of care 5) there has to be minimal contributory negligence
 
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Would a person I gave a talk to have a duty to act? If I made it clear that I wasn't certifying anyone, would they be considered negligent?
 
There are severl types of "Duty to Act" the ones most applicible here are Supervisory and Voluntary. A teacher has a supervisory duty to act and student who sees his friend gets hurt and begins treatment assumes a voluntary duty to act.

Now with all this says what really matters is the standard of care. The teachers and students are going to be held to a standard being what a resonable and prudent person with equal training would do. As long as they do only what a reasonable person would do and no more they are fine. But if a person attempts CPR and has no official training in it, they are opening them selves up for issues.
 
Ahh got it. Well I think the best approach of this would to become ARC Instructor Certified, use their curriculum, and go from there. My only concern is that I want this to be volunteer work, I don't necessarily want to be paid. Does anyone know if I can give classes/talks for free? Or does the ARC require payment?
 
beta_medic88 said:
Would a person I gave a talk to have a duty to act? If I made it clear that I wasn't certifying anyone, would they be considered negligent?
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Are they employed where this is part of their job description? If not then no. Even if employed with that job description, their duty to act may end when they clock out the same as many other medical professionals including EMTs.

You can get a "certification" in anything from basket weaving to Paramedic. It may just be a proof of completing a class and may have little weight unless you are legally able to do something with it such as obtain a license in your state. One can complete an EMT(P) class and get a certificate of completion but that cert is worthless, except for the knowledge gained, without the proper license to use it.

When I went was in grade school we had a first-aid class as part of our phys or health ed program which was longer than today's EMT-B class with much of the same training. It was a first-aid class and we were still Good Samaritans if we used what we learned.
 
ARC will want to be paid, but there are ways around it. I am an ARC instructor, and despise dealing with their politics. They find their disaster response, blood work, etc based on fees from the classes, so the money goes in the right direction.
Consider talking about scene safety, how to call 911, (Check, Call Care)Barriers to act, Good sam laws, then split injuries into muscles/bones and scrapes/bleeding-- and teach accordingly. Make sure they know to control major bleeding before dealing with 2ndary injuries.
Get your instructor cert or just find a local community instructor. often school nurses are instrucors-- and they may be better suited to teach the material anyway.
 
I don't believe it would be part of their job description. They are mostly teachers and part time employees of elementary schools. And yeah, it would be giving them "Good Samaritan" info for basic injuries.
 
The posters that mentioned becoming an ARC instructor are right on. It's the easiest way to do it, and they ALWAYS need volunteer instructors.

Call your local chapter, tell them you want to be a volunteer instructor. They'll jump up and down and then they'll schedule you for classes. Expect to take a 16 hour FIT class first. That's the Red Cross Instructor base class, "Fundamentals of Instruction Training". It's required of every ARC instructor. After that, get certified to teach Lay Responder CPR and Standard First Aid. That will cover any basic first aid class you might want to teach.

Then get ready for ARC politics. :)

Have fun.

Oh, and don't even think about varying from their curriculum. Ever.
 
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