First Aid Emergency Action Plan
The aims of First Aid
Preserve Life
Not only the casualty’s life, but your own as well. Far too often only one person’s life is in danger when the emergency services are called, but by the time they arrive there are more. If you put your life in danger, you can end up fighting for your own life instead of the casualty’s.
Prevent the situation from worsening
The skilled first aider must take action to prevent the whole situation from becoming worse (e.g. removing dangers such as traffic or fumes), as well as acting to prevent the casualty’s condition from deteriorating.
Promote Recovery
The actions of a first aider should, after preventing things from getting worse, help the casualty to recover from their illness or injury.
Priorities of treatment
The first priority with any patient is to make sure the Airway is open and then to check they are Breathing normally (A and B). If the patient is breathing normally, this means that their heart must also be beating, so blood is being circulated around the body. As the A and B check is carried out first, we call it the ‘primary survey’.
Once you are happy that the casualty is Breathing normally and oxygen is being circulated around the body, the next priority is to deal with any major Bleeding, because you need to maintain enough blood to circulate the oxygen around. After these steps, the next priority is to deal with any broken bones. The check for bleeding and then broken bones is called the ‘secondary survey’.
All animal life needs a constant supply of oxygen to survive. If that oxygen is taken away for any reason, brain cells will start to die within 3 to 4 minutes.
The priorities of treatment are therefore aimed at getting oxygen into the blood stream, ensuring that the blood is circulating around the body, and then preventing the loss of that blood. If this aim is achieved, then the majority of casualties will still be alive when the ambulance arrives.
Emergency Action Plan
It is important to have an action plan for emergencies. This flow chart guides you through the actions to be taken when dealing with a patient.
First Aid Lessons and Help
Book Your First Aid Training
These lessons and information do not replace actual attendance on a first aid course, getting hands on practice with your first aid skills is the best way to ensure you are a competant and capable first aider.
If you would like to book a first aid course or if you have a question for us please call 0191 7166601, email admin@firstaidsafeytraining.com or complete our online enquiry form and a member of the team will get back to you shortly.
We provide workplace onsite training for Emergency First Aid, First Aid at Work and Paediatric First Aid but a range of other First Aid Courses across the North East, our first aid training centre is based in South Shields.
