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First Aid Training to Educare Families

Background

First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person suffering from either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery.  It includes initial intervention in a serious condition prior to professional medical help being available, such as performing cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) while waiting for an ambulance, as well as the complete treatment of minor conditions, such as applying a plaster to a cut. A First aid is generally performed by someone with basic medical training. It doesn’t class as medical treatment and doesn’t replace interventions from a trained medical professional.

There are many situations which may require first aid, and many countries have legislation, regulation, or guidance which specifies a minimum level of first aid provision in certain circumstances. The provisions of specialist first aid cover at public gatherings, or mandatory first aid training within schools. First aid, however, does not necessarily require any particular equipment or prior knowledge, and can involve improvisation with materials available at the time, often by untrained people.

Principle of First Aid

a) To maintain circulatory volume of vital organs e.g. Brain, kidney, heart.

b) To maintain respiratory functions.

Aims of First Aid (3p)

a) Preserve Life: The overriding aim of all medical care, including first aid, is to save lives.

b) Prevent further harm/danger of further injury: This covers both external factors, such as moving a patient away from any cause of harm, and applying first aid techniques to prevent worsening of the condition such as applying pressure to stop a bleed becoming dangerous.

c) Promote Recovery: First aid also involves trying to start the recovery process from the illness or injury, and in some cases might involve completing a treatment, such as in the case of applying a plaster to a small wound.

• Objectives of Program:

General Objective:

To build capacities of Educare Families to manage injuries and illness during normal daily life.

Specific Objectives

• To provide first aid awareness to educare families
• To establish an enabling environment to practice positive health behavior in their family members and community.
• To demonstrate all procedure of bandaging in an injured part.
• To organize and prepare educare families for emergency accidental response.
• To provide first aid kit to all educare families.

• Methodology:

During family visit, we came to know Educare families were lacking knowledge of managing first aid service to injured or sick. So we planned to conduct first aid program. All families were informed through phone calls regarding time and venue.

The first aid program was conducted by using following methods:

a) Lecture Method

b) Demonstration

c) Group Discussion

For successful conduction of programs Chart paper, Posters and Roller bandage were used.

Activities Done:

Provide first aid training to Educare families. First aid course includes what should we do in case of:

• Bone fracture and Joint dislocation
• Bleeding
• Drowning
• Poisoning
• Snake Bite
• Dog Bite
• Altitude Sickness
• Burn
• Heart Attack

Demonstration of all procedure and technique of bandaging in an injured area.

Distribution of first aid kits and other essential first aid response equipment to Educare families.

Provide health information that can assist in prompt and appropriate first aid response to medical emergencies.

Encouraging them to build their communication skills, self confidence, leadership and ability to work well with others.

• Results:

There were 25 participants in first aid program. This program was conducted to train first aider and provide immediate support to the injured person so that to improve safety awareness and preventing injury and illness in their house, workplace and community. All the participants were able to learn the things what we actually wanted to teach.

In addition the result has been achieved in a timely and cost effective manner with one health staff and all of interested participants were utilized using available resources.

• Conclusion:

First aid program was highly effective as is clear from the ability to achieve the outcomes as set out in the program objectives. The program has made significant progress toward the outcomes having contributed to prepare educare families for emergency accidental response. This can be known by asking them at the end of the program. They were able to demonstrate the technique of bandaging too. It means the first aid program will be able to establish positive health behavior in their family members.