First Aid In Remote Situations

I'm hoping never to have to use my knowledge, but I'm glad I took the time and took the course.

It had been a long time since I last did any first aid training, probably about 26 years when I did Bronze Medallion Life Saving. I also used to attend St Johns Ambulance as a teenager, so first aid training was something I had done plenty of, but never really used. Plus, I'm originally from the UK, so along with the numerous changes to CPR over the years I had never been shown how to deal with snake bites.

I had been meaning to take a course since I had my first child, but life took over and I never got around to it. Now, with a six day hike coming up I felt it necessary. I found that St Johns had a remote situations course and it was held a 10 minute drive from my house - bonus! I signed up and let the group who will be coming on the hike know that it was on and the spare room was available should anyone else wish to join me on the course.

One other friend decided to come - she had never done any first aid training, and I am really glad there are now 4 out of 8 of us going on the hike that are trained in first aid (including an ER Nurse!).

The course covered all the basics, plus a range of topics such as contingency planning, which I had started to do being the organiser that I am, but it was great to have it in black and white. Over 3 days we covered all first aid topics, we role played scenarios, we played with carrying each other on stretchers and we had fun whilst we learnt some important information.

Fingers crossed it's not information we will use!