Why First Aid Should Be Top Of your New Year’s Resolutions
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
We are not a million miles from Christmas and all the excesses that it brings and then we enter into the new year, where many a New Year’s Resolution is made and broken. We are all guilty of it aren’t we? We pledge to stop drinking, get to the gym and get fit, lose weight, stop smoking or spend more time investing in ourselves. Whilst these are all admirable goals, have you ever stopped and considered making a resolution to learn first aid?
Let’s look at some facts and figures to see if we can persuade you that learning first aid is an extremely worthwhile Resolution to make:
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First Aid Stats from The British Red Cross
The British Red Cross carried out some research on over 2,000 UK based adults and asked them whether they would feel confident to deal with someone who was bleeding heavily, unresponsive and breathing and unresponsive and not breathing. The replies were quite surprising.
- Only 1 in 20 (5%) people would feel knowledgeable, confident and willing to act in those three scenarios – 95% of people would not.
- Seven in ten adults (71%) lack the knowledge and confidence to act if someone collapsed and was unresponsive and breathing.
- Nearly seven in ten (69%) people polled lack the knowledge and confidence to act if someone was bleeding heavily.
- In addition to these scenarios, eight in ten adults (81%) also said they lack the knowledge and confidence to act if a baby was choking.
First Aid for Children
According to RoSPA, over 67,000 children have accidents in the kitchen each year, 58,000 have accidents on the stairs and 28,000 need treatment for poisoning. Despite these alarming numbers, only around 9% of parents believe they would know how to perform first aid on their child in the event of an accident.
Why Learn First Aid
The thing to bear in mind when looking at these statistics is that quick treatment and intervention in the even of an accident can often be the difference between life and death or even in ensuring that recovery from any injury is quick and permanent with no lasting effects.
Putting this into context, around 10.8% of people survive a cardiac arrest outside of hospital. In places such as Norway or North Holland, where 73% and 60% of bystanders would feel comfortable and competent to administer basic CPR survival rates are at 25% and 21%. This is a significant increase!
It is clear that administering first aid in the event of an accident dramatically improves survival and recovery. In the UK, however, the majority of people would not feel comfortable helping if they witness a sudden medical emergency.
First Aid Courses
At Chris Garland Training we offer several first aid courses for the workplace, the general public and also paediatric first aid. These can be face to face courses and online to suit your needs. Why not make a New Year’s Resolution with a difference this year and book yourself on to one of our first aid courses in 2023. You never know, you might just be that good Samaritan who saves someone’s life. Can you imagine anything more rewarding than that? Why not contact us to talk through the different options and we will be glad to help you fulfil perhaps the most beneficial New Year’s resolution you could ever make.
