First Aid Kit

So, you need some first-aid information Great! Glad you asked. Let’s get started with Webster’s definition.

First-Aid n: Emergency care given immediately to an injured person. The purpose of first-aid is to minimize injury and future disability. In serious cases, first aid may be necessary to keep the victim alive.

Short, sweet and to the point. Just like the name implies first-aid literally means being there first on the scene to provide assistance, maybe the most important role of all, aside from the trained physician of course.

The good news is first aid is a series of simple medical techniques that almost anyone can perform with minimal first-aid training and a little first-aid information. This means you.

The Core First-Aid Skills

No matter what first-aid course you take they will teach you about the 3 B’s. These three skills are considered core in any first-aid training and provide the basis of all other first-aid information. The 3 B’s are:

• Breathing
• Bleeding
• Bones

And they should always be followed in this given order. Meaning a first-aid responder should attend to the breathing of a patient before checking for bleeding or broken bones. Where do the ABC’s come in? ABC is a mnemonic we use to help remember the proper procedure to follow when dealing with someone who is not breathing. Remember, the first thing we have to do is check for breathing. ABC stands for Airway, Breathing and Circulation. It is the order of steps taken to get a person breathing again. The 3 B’s and ABC are the foundation of your first-aid training.First-Aid In Action

Let’s put this into a real life situation so you can see how it all fits together, The B’s and the ABCs. And you thought you knew the alphabet.

Let’s assume you’re walking along and you come across someone who is unconscious. You are a first aid responder and you are here to preserve life. The very first thing you do is call for help. This is a vital piece of first-aid information. Shout, jump up and down, get on your cell phone, you are not a medical professional you are just first on the scene, get yourself some back up. Then remembering your first-aid training, The 3 B’s, you check to see if the patient is breathing. He’s not, what do you do? You use the mnemonic ABC (Airway, Breathing, Circulation).

So, Airway comes first. You check the patient’s airway. He might be choking on something or the tongue might have fall backward and is obstructing airflow. You can easily solve this by tipping the head backwards, which lifts the tongue clear. The airway can also become blocked from a foreign object lodged in the larynx, commonly called choking. Ok, so you tilt his head back and he begins to breath again. Great, well done! You’ve completed A, opening the airway, and the patient is breathing. That means B is taken care of and naturally, C, circulation, will take care of itself. Now what?

You proceed to the second two B’s, bleeding and bones. You’ve done great and you check over the patient while you wait for help to arrive. But let’s say you’ve opened the airway, you’ve completed A of the ABC’s, you’ve checked for choking and foreign objects, but the patient still isn’t breathing. This is where you move on to the B and C part, breathing and circulation. You will breathe and help circulate blood for the patient because he can’t do it himself.

This is called CPR and it could be one of the single most important things you ever learn in your life. CPR is a skill that requires some training. If CPR is done incorrectly is can cause further damage to your patient. There are certain first-aid situations that can be life threatening and require some professional know how, CPR is one of them.

Please do not attempt CPR without some first-aid training. Let’s get back to your patient. Naturally you have received first-aid training in CPR and begin immediately. You will not be able to check for bleeding or broken bones but continue performing CPR until further help arrives. Great job!

The Wrap up

So there you have it, a little first-aid info and what it looks like in action. I hope I’ve answered your question, about what fist aid is?

Not all first-aid is that dramatic, thank goodness! But it does feel good to know you can handle yourself in a crisis. Remember no one is expecting you to get a degree in medicine or master CPR. You just need enough good quality first-aid information and training to be able to hold it together until professional help arrives.

Jennifer Williams of http://www.all-things-first-aid.com and enjoys bringing topical and relevant information about first aid and first aid products. I work for one of only a few companies online to provide products specializing in burn care and treatment.