First Aid Course: First Aid Training for Caring for the Elderly

Whether you are looking after your elderly parent or are interested in pursuing a career as a professional elderly caregiver, first aid training is an essential skill that you will need. No matter how fit or active an elderly person is, they are more vulnerable to accidents or injuries. First aid training will provide you with the knowledge and skills to adequately handle any injury or accident an elderly person may suffer from. EMCARE offers a range of first aid courses that will equip you to offer the ultimate first aid care to an elderly family member or client.

Essential First Aid Training for Caring for the Elderly:

Elderly people are more prone to injuries, falls, and accidents that can place their health and safety at risk. First aid training from a first aid course is critical to provide an elderly person with expert care if they are faced with a medical emergency. We have highlighted the prevalent health and safety risks for elderly people and the essential skills you will gain from a first aid course to enable you to care for your elderly family member or client.

1) Slips and Falls:

Elderly people are highly prone to suffering from slips and falls. Physical factors, such as reduced muscle strength, eyesight, coordination, and motor skills, are the common cause of slips and falls in elderly people. Other elements such as environmental factors, medication side effects, chronic diseases, previous surgical procedures, and behaviours can cause slips and falls to be more common.

Slips and falls can result in serious injuries for an elderly person. Elderly people are more prone to broken bones, traumatic brain injuries, strained or bruised muscles, and severe wounds when they trip and fall. Even a minor fall can have long-lasting impacts on how an elderly person functions.

The high risk of slips and falls for elderly people demonstrates that training from a first aid course is critical. Acting correctly when an elderly person has slipped and fallen is imperative to ensure that you do not further aggravate the injury, resulting in increased risks of trauma or surgical complications. When you have training from a first aid course, you will learn these critical skills that will enable you to care for an elderly person who has suffered from a slip or fall.

1. Fractures: Fractures and broken bones are prevalent in elderly people. Due to the reduced bone density as a result of the aging process, even a fall from a low height can result in a fracture. You will learn how to identify a fractured bone, offer assistance to reduce the pain and keep the elderly person calm to prevent shock.
2. Head and Spinal Injuries: Head and spinal injuries require immediate and effective action. You will learn in a first aid course how to identify a head and spinal injury, the correct positioning to keep the injured elderly person in, and how to monitor the emergency situation until Emergency Medical Services arrive.

2) Wounds and Infection:

Wounds are a particular problem for elderly people. As we age, the epidermis, which is the outer layer of our skin, loses its strength and elasticity. This results in your skin becoming thinner and more susceptible to cuts and injuries, which is why an elderly person can suffer from a severe wound by simply just bumping their arm.

Another risk to elderly people is that any cuts or wounds are more susceptible to infection. The increased risk of infection is a result of decreased dendritic cells in the dermis and epidermis. Dendritic cells detect bacteria and mucosa and essentially alert the immune system to respond to these antigens. Lowered dendritic cells result in an impaired immune response, allowing for an increased risk of infection.

Providing a quick and effective response to an elderly person who has suffered from a wound is essential. Due to the wounds being more severe in elderly people, you will need to stop the bleeding immediately. The increased risk for infection means that you will need to adequately clean the wound and keep it hygienic while it slowly heals.

A first aid course will cover all the essentials of caring for wounds and bleeding. You will learn how to stop excessive bleeding, clean wounds correctly, dress different types of wounds, and monitor the healing of the wounds. You will also learn when bleeding needs professional attention from Emergency Medical Services.

3) Cardiac Arrest:

Cardiac arrest is becoming an increasingly frequent problem for elderly people. Cardiac arrest occurs when a person’s heart suddenly stops beating, resulting in loss of consciousness, collapsing, ceased breathing, and no pulse. Acting immediately in this situation is imperative to ensure that the elderly person survives.

If you are caring for an elderly person, you must have training in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). This is the emergency procedure that must be performed on a person who has experienced cardiac arrest. CPR will ensure that blood continues to be pumped around the body to provide oxygen to vital organs to prevent any permanent damage or death. A first aid course will cover the practical skills of CPR so that you can confidently perform this life-saving procedure if faced with an elderly person who has experienced cardiac arrest.

4) Burns:

Burn injuries are a common problem for elderly people. Burn injuries in elderly people often occur at home as a result of spilling scalding water due to reduced physical strength, using faulty electrical appliances, accidentally touching heat sources due to impaired vision, and incorrectly using chemical products. During a household fire, the limited mobility of an elderly person will prevent them from quickly getting to safety and can result in serious burn injuries.

Burn injuries are more severe for elderly people due to the thinning of the epidermis and the slower infection response from the decreased dendritic cells. The degree of the burn injury will typically be higher for an elderly person and there is an increased risk for complications from infections. Healing of the burn will also be slower for an elderly person, resulting in prolonged discomfort.

Providing care for an elderly person who has suffered from a burn injury is essential. In first aid training, you will learn how to identify the degree of the burn and act accordingly to reduce pain and the risk of infection. Performing shock prevention is also essential for an elderly person who has been burned, which you will also learn in a first aid course.

5) Choking:

Choking is a prevalent risk for elderly people. As we age, our ability to swallow food becomes impaired as a result of many factors, such as an elongated throat and the weakening of the muscles used for swallowing. Choking can also be caused by inadequately chewing food due to loss of teeth or weakened teeth that make chewing certain foods more difficult. Food can get lodged in the elderly person’s throat, resulting in choking.

Seeing your elderly family member or client choke can be stressful and overwhelming unless you have first aid training. In first aid training, you will learn all the tell-tale signs that someone is choking, such as gagging, panic, and a bluish tint to the lips or skin. You will be practically taught the steps to take to successfully remove the blockage from the airway. You will learn all the essential techniques to ensure that you can assist an elderly person whilst they are choking without causing any further risk to their safety.

EMCARE First Aid Courses:

EMCARE is an accredited health and safety training facility that offers expert first aid training. We cover a diverse range of injuries, accidents, and emergencies that require expert first aid training in each one of our first aid courses. We have highlighted our available first aid courses that are ideally suited to caring for an elderly family member or client and briefly highlighted what each first aid course will cover.

1. Basic First Aid / First Aid Refresher Course: This first aid course is ideal for families who are caring for an elderly parent at home. You will learn all the basics of burns, fractures, wounds, adult CPR, choking, head and spinal injuries, and more to assist you to offer care to your elderly family member in a medical emergency.
2. First Aid Level 1 Course: This first aid course will provide you with the theoretical and practical skills to perform basic first aid during a medical emergency with an elderly person. You will be taught how to adequately care for fractures, burns, choking, wounds, head and spinal injuries, and other essential first aid skills.
3. First Aid Level 2 Course: This EMCARE first aid course builds onto the First Aid Level 1 Course. This course covers additional medical emergencies, such as bites and stings, drowning accidents, abdominal pelvic injuries, and environmental illnesses and injuries, and provides you with the training to handle them confidently and effectively.
4. First Aid Level 3 Course: This advanced first aid course is the highest level of first aid training that you can achieve, and builds onto the first two first aid courses. You will learn additional first aid skills, such as how to handle behavioural emergencies, special patients, and provide emergency oxygen therapy. It is highly recommended that you pursue the highest level of first aid training if you are pursuing a career as a professional elderly caregiver.
5. CPR & AED Course: This specific first aid course focuses on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Automated External Defibrillation (AED) training. You will learn how to confidently handle cardiac arrest, stroke, choking, and a heart attack whilst you wait for professional Emergency Medical Services to arrive.

Every EMCARE first aid course is offered by professional and experienced trainers. Our trainers are qualified with a Level 6 Intermediate Life Support Paramedic and have a minimum of 1000 hours of emergency service work experience. Our expert trainers ensure that you will walk away with the highest standard of first aid training so that you can adequately care for your elderly family member or client.

About EMCARE:

With EMCARE, you have access to an extensive range of health and safety training courses. Alongside our first aid courses, we offer occupational health and safety courses, fire and rescue training courses, hand tool operator training courses, and working at heights training courses. You can actively pursue a career or ensure health and safety for those around you with the training from EMCARE courses.

EMCARE is easily accessible all over South Africa. You can find an EMCARE branch conveniently located in Johannesburg, Polokwane, Durban, Gqeberha, Hoedspruit, and Cape Town. Our fully-equipped branches and a team of expert trainers are ready for you to enrol in your selected EMCARE course.

EMCARE’s first aid course will provide you with the essential first aid training to adequately care for any elderly person.