The Key Skills You'll Acquire In A First Aid Course

Enrolling in a first aid course is a great way to learn life-saving skills and keep those around you protected. Accidents happen all the time, which is why it's important that we know how to keep people safe when the time comes. Whether you're tending to a workplace accident or want to keep your family from danger, completing this course goes a long way.

Here at EMCARE, we are passionate about promoting a culture of safety through our health and safety training programs. In this brief read, we'll be breaking down the key skills you can gain from completing a first aid course and how they can help you in the real world.

Top Six First Aid Course Skills

First aid courses are designed to prepare people with the knowledge and practices they need to prevent injuries from getting worse. Emergencies can happen anywhere and can often lead to life-threatening extremes. Completing a course not only teaches you important techniques, but also provides you with a range of essential skills, such as:

Dressing Wounds
One of the most important skills you can learn from a first aid course is how to properly address wounds. If someone gets an abrasion or cut on their body, it is crucial that their wound is tended to properly as this will protect them from bacteria and reduce the severity of their injury. Open wounds can lead to excess bleeding and infection if they aren't dressed correctly, which is why it is important to act fast and treat the wound carefully.

With our course, you'll learn how to clean and dress wounds with bandages and other materials, which is an especially handy skill for accidental abrasions and cuts.

Treating Shock
When people experience severe accidents like car crashes or big fires take place, it can often lead to feeling symptoms of shock. Falling into a state a shock is normal, especially if someone has just come out of a traumatic event. While symptoms of shock aren't especially dangerous, it's important that those who are injured remain calm and are looked after to not worsen their condition.

In a first aid course, you learn how to detect signs of shock and how you should act when you recognise it. The job of first aiders is to keep injured people safe before paramedics arrive, which includes keeping their blood pressure stable and helping them to keep calm. If you're ever stuck in a situation where the people around you experience shock, first aid can teach you how to look after them.

Tending To Burns
Burns are especially common injuries, ranging from simple stovetop burns to injuries incurred from dangerous fires. When it comes to critical first aid course skills, treating burn wounds is especially important. Burns are incredibly painful and can lead to infection if not treated properly, which is why it's important to act fast.

First aid training provides people with the skills they need to both identify the severity of burn wounds and how to treat them. The treatment you apply to a burn wound can significantly reduce pain for the victim and protect them against infection.

CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a crucial first aid skill that can save lives during an emergency. If someone is experiencing cardiac arrest, being treated with CPR can help to circulate blood to the brain and keep the heart beating. While most people are familiar with CPR due to its many onscreen depictions, the key to performing CPR is doing it properly. It is essential that you know exactly how to perform CPR before using it on a person in danger.

By completing a first aid course, you can gain first-hand training and learn key terminology on what CPR is and how to properly execute it in case of an emergency. When it comes to life-saving skills, CPR is one of the most crucial as it can double the chances of someone's survival if done correctly.

Making A Splint
If someone around you has just broken or fractured a bone in their body, they need to be supported with a splint to prevent further injury. Making a splint for someone with an immobilised body part is one of the most important things you can do before a paramedic arrives. Setting a splint for an injured person not only prevents the affected area from attaining further damage, but also helps to relieve excessive pain and discomfort.

Whether you have access to medical equipment or household items, a first aid course teaches you how to work fast and make an effective splint with what's available to you.

Preventing Bleeding
Excessive bleeding is incredibly dangerous and can be life-threatening if not treated quickly. If an injured person sustains a cut in one of their veins or main arteries, they can bleed out rapidly in a matter of minutes before experiencing death. When it comes to severe cuts and excessive bleeding, time is of the essence, which is why the injured person needs medical attention immediately.

Not knowing how to stop bleeding can be fatal for injured people, which is why first aid training is so important for handling emergencies. With a first aid course, you can learn how to stop bleeding safely and keep someone stabilised before a paramedic arrives.

About EMCARE

Whether you require first aid, fire fighting or health and safety officer training, EMCARE has got you covered. Our training programmes cover a range of essential life-saving techniques and modules that help to prepare you for diffusing different emergencies.

To start one of our main health and safety courses, visit our website or contact us online to find out more.