Bill;

My sentiments are similar to yours. As far as First Aid goes, there is no "First Aid" proficiency in Saint John Ambulance as we are a First Aid provider and therefore, all youth members are required to be trained to an appropriate level of FA. ("We Can Help" for the juniors; Emergency First Aid for Cadets; Standard First Aid with level C CPR for Crusaders and BTS1 - essentially, the Extended First Aid with an additional Home Health Care module - for adults.)

In Canada, I believe the Boy Scout First Aid merit badge MUST be taught by a qualified Saint John Ambulance (or equivalent) First Aid instructor, btw.

The beef I have with our Basic Rescuer I (Search & Rescue) proficiency requirements is that whoever wrote the requirements was not treating it as an "introduction" to the subject, which IMO it should be. The requirements are actually more rigorous than the NASAR 2-day Introduction to SAR course, which is (again, IMNSHO) ridiculous. They threatened to disallow the proficiency because 4 of the 5 students who took the training hadn't completed the Wilderness First Aid course *before* they took the SAR training.

Btw, I note that the BSA Merit Badge Requirements don't list the First Aid MB as a "pre-requisite" but as one of 9 requirements; and I didn't see anything indicating that those requirements be fulfilled in any particular order. I think this is as it should be - the requirements should state which knowledge and skills must be achieved, but they should not tell the instructor how to teach those skills.

I think whoever wrote the requirements for the Basic Rescuer Proficiency didn't understand the difference between a pre-requisite and a requirement.