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#233795 - 10/16/11 12:06 AM First Aid References
Crowe Offline
Journeyman

Registered: 12/03/07
Posts: 88
In taking stock of my preparedness skills, I have come to realize that my first aid skills are horribly out of date. My intention is to take a Red Cross First Aid/CPR class as soon as possible, as I believe doing it is more important than reading about it, but the classes in my area are a bit pricey, and while I scrape together the cash, I was wondering what First Aid resources you can scrounge up on the net. Have some useful links to pdfs, websites, or just favorite books that I can check out of the library?

Thanks,

C. Rowe

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#233796 - 10/16/11 12:09 AM Re: First Aid References [Re: Crowe]
chaosmagnet Offline
Sheriff
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/03/09
Posts: 3819
Loc: USA
Take a look at "Where There Is No Doctor," available for (legal) free download at http://50.57.140.88/wp-content/uploads/pdf/en_wtnd_2010/en_wtnd_2010_whole_book.pdf . Lots of good stuff that goes well beyond basic first aid.

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#233798 - 10/16/11 12:59 AM Re: First Aid References [Re: Crowe]
hikermor Offline
Geezer in Chief
Geezer

Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
For back country use, I like "Medicine for Mountaineering," by James Wilkerson. The latest edition I have is the Fourth, but there may be a more recent update. Red Cross First Aid is great, but it is quite basic and generally assumes a normally functioning urban environment, which may not always be the case.
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#233804 - 10/16/11 03:48 AM Re: First Aid References [Re: Crowe]
Alan_Romania Offline

Addict

Registered: 06/29/05
Posts: 648
Loc: Arizona
My personal favorite for a reference/textbook for First Aid is NOLS Wilderness First Aid or for a more advanced book NOLS Wilderness Medicine.

Good Wilderness First Aid classes are harder to find than basic First Aid classes, but are well worth it.

Another FREE resource that is decent is ARC's Wilderness and Remote First Aid guide.


Edited by Alan_Romania (10/16/11 03:50 AM)
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#233814 - 10/16/11 01:46 PM Re: First Aid References [Re: Crowe]
NuggetHoarder Offline
Member

Registered: 07/01/11
Posts: 145
Loc: Appalachians
Some great books mentioned so far.

I always recommend people learn anatomy. You can go a long way on sites like http://www.innerbody.com Not only does it help you provide better first aid, it's also important that you be able to communicate accurately with health care professionals when you finally make contact with them. You might find yourself someday on the radio asking for advice from a doctor and it's much better to say "My friend has a broken Ulna" instead of just saying "My friend has a broken arm". You'll save valuable minutes if you are more concise.

Furthering that theme, it's also advantageous to learn some basic anatomical location terminology. Words like anterior, posterior, distal, and even simple terms like left and right that are easily mixed up and can have adverse effects if you get it wrong. So, furthering our example above, you might say on the radio "My friend has a compound fracture of the ulna with bone visible at the anterior distal area of the forearm". You get the idea.

This also works the other way as well. It helps to understand these terms if you get advice from a doctor over a radio or cellphone. If a doctor tells you to apply a tourniquet on the proximal area around the humerus, would you know where he's talking about?

A good place to start learning anatomical location terminology is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_location

Another helpful learning tool is to have a subject to practice on. If you have a girlfriend or boyfriend it's nice to be able to probe and feel around their body to get to know how things are supposed to feel when all is normal and well. Your other half may not like you poking and probing all their rib bones, but you can learn a lot snooping around a healthy body with just your fingers.

Furthering the theme of practicing on a healthy person - it's good to have a grasp of what a normal person's vital signs are. You should have a fairly good grasp of what a normal temperature, normal respiration rate, normal perspiration rate, normal pulse rate, etc. Then when things go wrong you can begin to make better assumptions about their condition. Of course we all know what a person's temperature is, but do you know how a normal person's pupils react to light? Shining a flashlight quickly into one eye of a healthy patient will cause the pupil to rapidly contract. If one pupil is non reactive you might be looking at a brain injury. Again, knowing how a healthy patient responds will help you when you encounter a casualty.

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#233817 - 10/16/11 02:47 PM Re: First Aid References [Re: Crowe]
Lono Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 10/19/06
Posts: 1013
Loc: Pacific NW, USA
Part of first aid education I think is instruction on when not to do what's in books Crowe - to do no harm. Simple wounds are just that, basic first aid will treat them, and really simple wounds require no real assistance - apply pressure, keep things clean everything should turn out ok. More complex medical assistance requires certified training, and without some basic training you won't really know when you have gone over the edge into a more complex, potentially life-threatening scenario. The decision to give first aid to another human being is a serious one, applying all your training and experience and fraught with general and specific personal liability for your actions. Without some instruction, you'll be reading the book when you should be applying pressure, or giving aid. Without a certified course in first aid, your response to anyone that asks if you have any first aid experience (employers, volunteer organizations, CERTs, friends, a patient lying on the ground with a compound fracture, etc), is "no." Anyone for whom it really matters does not want to be treated by the guy who slept the previous night in a Holiday Inn, so he must miraculously be transformed into a neurosurgeon. Once you have taken a course, you can say "Yes, I'm trained in [Wilderness First Aid], can I help you," and generally get right to work.

A course that gives you hands on experience in treating wounds, immobilizing fractures, assessing and evacuating patients has been best in my experience. For general preparedness, save up $175-200, and take a Wilderness First Aid course from NOLS / (Wilderness Medical Institute) or the American Red Cross. The 2 day course is legit, and gives you some very valuable first aid skills that you will apply in life or in your planned preparedness activities. The certified training expires every 2 years, so if you want to keep it up you should similarly save up and re-take the course, like medicine the curriculum changes often enough to justify the cost. Plus they give you a decent, small medical reference that covers what you learn.

Once you have certified training, you will have a better sense of what first aid book references will be useful to you.

Also I think it is the price of admission to a civilized society and marks you as a civilized man/woman, that you take a CPR / AED course - not all courses are free, but generally speaking you can qualify for a free one though school, or an employer, or by volunteering with certain agencies (although even the Red Cross doesn't provide free CPR training anymore except for its actual employees). And check with your local emergency management agency or fire district, they often hold CPR fairs or other ways to learn and be certified (there's that word again) in CPR.

Last, practice - find out who provides the first aid station at local 5K and half marathons, and see if you can sign up to assist. That may get you into their required first aid training, and it will give you some hands on experience in doing real life first aid. Learning from those with more experience is always good, and frankly I've lived my whole life by that rule. If you look hard enough you may find other volunteer opportunities to learn and apply your first aid skills.

Book learned first aid folks might be relied on to hold a bandage on a wound, but not to assist with providing actual first aid. Get trained, you'll be more prepared to help real people.

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#233870 - 10/17/11 07:59 PM Re: First Aid References [Re: Crowe]
Finn Offline
Member

Registered: 08/04/11
Posts: 173
Loc: Colonial Heights, VA
Hello!

Great stuff! I'm a strong advocate of people learning everything they can.
I'd like to add that some municipalities offer classes for a localized CD. Also some Fire Departments will do it and even the Red Cross has.

Harv
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People don't like to be meddled with.
~River Tam

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#233896 - 10/18/11 02:02 AM Re: First Aid References [Re: Finn]
Pete Offline
Veteran

Registered: 02/20/09
Posts: 1372
Your intention to brush up first aid skills is an excellent idea. Unfortunately, the system in the USA is not geared to doing a good job of teaching these kinds of skills.

You will probably find that the Red Cross class actually involves 90% instruction on CPR, and 10% instruction on first aid. Too bad, since the text they actually have on First Aid is quite a good book. In reality, their whole class should be turned around. They should focus 90% on first aid, and 10% on CPR. Except for special circumstances, CPR is often not going to be effective on people who have lost their pulse and breathing (exceptions being drowning, electrocution, choking incidents, and maybe de-fib [which requires a defibrillator and isn't taught in the intro class). So in other words, the curriculum doesn't really make sense.

Next step up is EMT training. This is definitely better in terms of taking more time to teach anatomy, illnesses, wounds, patient assessment etc. However, the whole EMT thing is also not really designed to make you an effective first aid provider. That's because the US medical system doesn't want you practicing medicine, even if it's just first aid. So the EMT course winds up teaching you how to get ready to throw somebody in an ambulance. My wife's joke - while I was taking various EMT classes - is that the correct answer to any problem boiled down to ... "oxygen and transport".

It's more likely that the military teaches effective first aid. They have to. And probably a number of other countries around the world havemuch better first aid classes than America does. Check for first aid manuals from places like Israel, Switzerland, Cuba etc.

Good luck.
It shouldn't have to be this hard.

Pete2


Edited by Pete (10/18/11 02:03 AM)

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#233910 - 10/18/11 02:20 PM Re: First Aid References [Re: Crowe]
Lono Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 10/19/06
Posts: 1013
Loc: Pacific NW, USA
I don't mean to hijack this thread but some of your points Pete are interesting but seem to require a response of sorts, as I tend to disagree with some of them:

CPR / First Aid split: I agree that the current split in most combined curriculums (Red Cross and American Heart Assn, I've taken both) is a little out of whack, not enough time is given to adequate first aid instruction, in fact in 2 recent courses FA was mostly an after thought, "you should read the manual" type of topic. Nowadays we add AED deployment to CPR / First Aid instruction, and the general CPR mechanism has been simplified down to compression only, so maybe there's an opportunity for a better time alignment with priorities: deploy available AEDs for maximum survivability, compression CPR until and AED or medics arrive for a chance at survival, and a decent level of first aid instruction, enough to apply pressure, immobilize patients when necessary, and wait for the cavalry / medical assistance.

But a couple points on which we differ: CPR classes now instruct on AED / defibrillators, not just advanced ones - AEDs give the greatest chance of survivability, so the focus is on rapid deployment, and you want some training on that; and CPR only effectiveness isn't as dismal as you portray, particularly when followed by an AED and/or rapid medical response. I agree, there are plenty of scenarios where CPR won't revive a patient, but studies also show that in regions where CPR training is backed by rapid response, survivability is better. And doing CPR while someone comes running with an AED gives you a decent chance at living. The Seattle area is recognized for better survival stats, and that's attributed to early CPR from more knowledgeable lay persons, and faster medical response - plus I'm positive that the availability of AEDs in public places and from law enforcement etc will begin to factor into those stats too. Personally I'm 2 for 3, and the one deceased was out of region, where medical response was approx. 15 minutes from assisting. In 2 successful CPRs medical assistance was 4-5 minutes away, and both patients are still alive and kicking. But small numbers shouldn't convince anyone. Your heart stops and the odds will rapidly fall off in minutes, why not give them the best chance of rejoining the living - train everyone on CPR and AEDs. And support your local medic one levies...

I do agree though you have to look a little harder to find effective first aid training, but wilderness first aid has evolved to be a decent preparedness tool, since the concept that you are going to be responsible for your patients for 24-72 hours in wilderness settings (and need to set your treatment expectations appropriately) dovetails nicely with typical disaster scenarios, where paramedics won't be available. The 'problem' with traditional first aid training is the availability of medical response, and the likelihood that 99.99% of people won't encounter more serious trauma and be expected to deal with it. That's a good problem to have, but I'd like more people to have WFA training for non-wilderness situations. It is becoming more mainstream through organizations like the Red Cross, and I think eventually folks like the Boy Scouts will start to train future generations according to WFA principles. Be prepared etc.

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#233946 - 10/19/11 01:58 AM Re: First Aid References [Re: Pete]
MoBOB Offline
Veteran

Registered: 09/17/07
Posts: 1219
Loc: here
Originally Posted By: Pete
Next step up is EMT training.
It is hard to get into these courses in some states due to the ride-along requirements. I, too, just wanted to do the classroom; but having to be associated with an EMS squad made it a non-player.

Originally Posted By: Pete
It's more likely that the military teaches effective first aid.
Back a million years ago when I was in the Air Force in Alaska, we had our aircraft maintenance ancillary training dudes go to the Army base and take the "Combat First-Aid" course. They loved it. They did saline IM injections. We incorporated many of the things they learned.
_________________________
"Its not a matter of being ready as it is being prepared" -- B. E. J. Taylor

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