One in three cant use First Aid
LUPE Training
At the start of each First Aid course that I undertake, I will always ask the question 'has anyone not done first aid before?'
Due to the type of client groups I work with(Social Care Staff and Teachers) they have normally all undertaken training before.
However today I was fortunate enough to work with a staff team from an industrial setting and when I asked my usual question I was amazed to see that over half of the course had never done a first aid course and wouldn't have known what to do in an emergency.
I thought I would look into this further as it intrigued me as to how many people would feel confident in using first aid skills learnt on a course.
I found an article from the Daily Mail, that reported the findings of Professor Gavin Perkins, of Warwick University, who led the research, said: ‘The rates of bystander CPR in the UK have for too long lagged behind other European nations, but with campaigns like Restart a Heart Day, we are now thankfully seeing some improvements.’
A third of Britons say they would not be confident enough to attempt the kiss of life on someone having a cardiac arrest. A survey revealed how lives are being put at risk because of a lack of knowledge of first aid techniques.
Researchers asked 4,200 adults what they would do in a medical emergency and if they knew how to perform resuscitation. Thirty per cent said they wouldn’t know how to do CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
And, although 96 per cent said they would immediately call an ambulance, experts say that by the time one arrived, the victim may well have died.
Brain tissue starts to die within three minutes after the heart stops.
Paramedics are meant to arrive to the most serious 999 calls within seven minutes but some may take longer than 20 minutes.
A cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating and it is far more serious than a heart attack, where the supply of blood to the heart is blocked by a clot.
Previous studies have shown that fewer than one in ten people in Britain survive following a cardiac arrest, partly due to a lack of public knowledge of CPR.
In countries where it is taught in schools, such as Norway, as many as a quarter survive. In January the Government announced plans to add CPR, defibrillator awareness and other lifesaving first aid skills to the national curriculum in secondary schools in England.
Full article here.
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