We don't do first aid but in science we do teach kids how their organs work alongside public health stuff that is also dealt with in PSHE. The content is a bit outdated in places (eg protein only comes from meat) but the intention is there. For older kids these kinds of lessons are more discussion-based and there's less shut-up-and-write-the-answers-down than you get elsewhere in secondary school. This is important because some things the kids will already know and some things they'll have no clue about, and you can't just guess which is which. Talking about contraception with one class (year 11s) that a vasectomy did not involve removing the testes altogether
It’s astonishing to me that all Year 11s are not taught basic CPR. It’s literally just airway management (head tilt chin lift) and chest compressions.
S- Safety- check it’s safe to approach
S- Stimulate- shout and shake for response
S- Summon help
A- Airway- open with head tilt chin lift (in a child the nose points up in a ‘sniff the air’ position)
B- Breathing- Do rescue breaths if you’re trained otherwise don’t.
C- Chest compression
- Start chest compressions as soon as possible.
- Deliver compressions on the lower half of the sternum (‘in the centre of the chest’).
- Compress to a depth of at least 5 cm but not more than 6 cm.
- Compress the chest at a rate of 100–120 min−1 with as few interruptions as possible. (Tip: sing Staying alive in your head and compress in time. I use Nelly the Elephant in my head).
- Allow the chest to recoil completely after each compression; do not lean on the chest.
Keep doing continuous chest compressions until help arrives. It’s exhausting. If possible swop with another person every two minutes because however fit you are evidence shows efficacy reduces quickly.
The reason they got rid out out of hospital rescue breaths is that people got hung up on not remembering the ratio (30:2 compressions: breaths) they wouldn’t attempt compressions. Good quality chest compressions save lives.
If there’s an Automatic Electric Defibrillator (AED) open the lid and it will speak to you and give you loud and clear instructions inc where to place pads, analyse the heart rhythm and tell you to administer a shock if indicated. Say loudly ‘
stand clear, shocking’ if you’re leading the arrest. Only in 1 in 4 adults is a shock indicated (the other heart rhythms you don’t shock and just continue CPR), less in children who tend to go into non shockable rhythms. Get the pads on, listen, follow the voice.
(That said, for an adult out of hospital cardiac arrest survival to discharge rates are less than 1 in ten, so yunno, do your best).
This is more a public service announcement than aimed at you