3 Reasons Why A New Year’s First Aid Refresher Is A Good Idea
Posted on 12th Jan, 2018 | By Lorretta Tatham
The start of each year is a great time to take stock of things – this applies company-wide, but amongst the aspects you should examine first is whether your first aid skills are up to date. As one of the most important skills you will ever learn, it pays to take regular refresher courses. This week on the blog here at Browns Safety, we’re looking at three of the most vital reasons why!
First Aid Saves Lives
We should really start with the most pivotal one. We really can’t overstate the importance of first aid in the workplace (or anywhere else, for that matter). If someone were to collapse or seriously injure themselves at work, in the worst instances their work’s resident first aider might be their only chance of survival. For example, in cases of cardiac arrest, if the effective CPR and defibrillation is delivered within 3-5 minutes of the patient collapsing, their chance of survival goes from 6% all the way up to 74%. There are many more instances in which first aid can literally make the difference between life or death, so refresher courses shouldn’t be easily ignored.
A Capable First Aider Is Required By Law
Another major reason why first aid courses are so vitally important is that UK law mandates employers to have a well-trained first aider in each and every single workplace. At the end of the day, employers have a duty of care to their staff for as long as they’re at work, and ensuring that the first aider is sufficiently up to date on their training falls well within that responsibility
It Prepares You For Unexpected Situations
We talked above about cardiac arrests and CPR – but this is just one of a number of scenarios that can arise during an emergency at work. It might even be the case that several people know the correct procedure in such an event. Choking is another good example of this, as the Heimlich manoeuvre is broadly common knowledge.
However, far fewer people know the correct procedures for properly dealing with people in shock, or poisoning, or soft tissue injuries. This requires more specialised knowledge that will be down solely to the first aider, and given that these are far less common scenarios it’s possible for that knowledge to fade faster unless it’s kept constantly up-to-date. Keeping your skills sharp with a first aid course can therefore be vital to swift (and possibly lifesaving) action in these events.
Here at Browns Safety, we offer several first aid courses, delivered by highly qualified instructors. This encompasses our 1 Day Emergency First Aid at Work Course, as well as our more in-depth 3 Day First Aid at Work Course. Book your place today by giving us a call on 01254 615 517, and of course, if you’ve got any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask. That’s what we’re here for!
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