First Aid and Basic Life Saving Skills
Introduction
· First aid is immediate treatment or care given to the person from sickness, illness, bums or injury untill advanced care give to a person or person required.
· First aid “Help given to a sick or injured person until full medical is available” “—provision of initial care for an illness or injury”
· Revisit the previous knowledge of disasters. The disasters or accidents could be of different kinds and categories based on natural or human reasons and can occur any time to anyone. The accidents can cause physical disability, life or financial damage. The bigger the disaster, the greater chances of damage are there . Sometimes the affecters suffer mentally, physically and financially over a longer period of time.
· During the last 100 years, the disasters which have visited Pakistan include epidemic, draught, floods, earthquake, cyclones, public dispute, riots, traffic and train accidents and bomb explosions. In the previous decade alone, more than 1000 bomb explosions took place.
· There is a difference between a small accident and a big disaster, but the rules of providing medical first aid are same for the both. Be the disaster big or small; in either situations, similar rules are to be kept in view to understand the principles of medical first aid. At the same time, the principles of disaster management are also to be understood.
· To attract the participant ask them the following questions:
· 1. What is first aid?
· 2. Have you ever administered first aid to anyone?
· 3. Why does first aid skill matter?
This source material will provide you guidance for learning such basic lifesaving skills as have been designed for a local / professional rescue workers. Besides, it will also provide guidance about administering first aid in an emergency or a disaster.
First Aid
It is an immediate and temporary care given by a rescuer or a non-professional to a victim of an accident or sudden illness before the services of a physician are obtained. It is a process generally based on simple steps. For this purpose a person is trained in such a way as he could learn basic skills and could demonstrate them with minimum use of equipment. To examine and assess the physical condition of a person, following steps are to be kept in mind:
· Safeguard the accident place. The circumstances which are beyond your control, do not try to overcome them.
· Carry out primary assessment.
· According to a new method of CPR, first compress the chest before cleansing the airway and administering rescue breathing by placing your mouth on patient’s mouth. These new instructions are applied both on children and adolescent people; however, these are not applied on a new born/babies
