CISV From The Balcony.: First Aid.
First Aid.
I don't write much here about my professional life, but as some of you may know, I'm a doctor in training to be a cardiologist. As part of my residency, I'm currently in the Intensive Care Unit, and have to deal with patients that survived after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Whereas paramedics and emergency physicians are usually well trained, I find it shocking to hear how badly the non-medical people perform CPR: It's really just a few basic things you need to know to improve the outcome of people's lives...
How does this relate to CISV? Quite obviously, CPR is usually mostly necessary with people, who suffer from chronic or acute heart disease. Among the kids and leaders in most of our camps this disease is quite rare. More common are way less dramatic emergencies like minor injuries or trauma. However, how much more shocking would it be, if you made the wrong decision when dealing with a serious situation with a kid participant.
How much emergencies are we talking about? Gaby from IO tells me, there are about 240-270 medical incidents every year, mostly minor scrapes, allergies, and broken bones. Also, a few people have to go home for medical reasons.
What I'm hinting at, is that if you are going to be a leader or staff in a camp soon, I strongly suggest, you get your first-aid skills up-to-date. Some NAs require a first-aid certificate, I would go beyond that and suggest that you specifically inform yourself about first-aid and children of the respective age-group.
If there's no course available in your area, here's at least two websites, that can help you be better prepared:
- http://kidshealth.org/pare
- CPR-Dude is also quite informative: http://www.cprdude.com/
- The American Heart Association even offers online courses for a few bucks:
http://www.onlineaha.org/i
Maybe NAs should also invite a first-aid trainer to their national leadership trainings, and focus in exactly the kind of incidents, that happen in camps. Or we even get CISV international to prepare a "first-aid"-reader with the most important rules for every camp.
(Oh...and just so that nobody gets me wrong - this is not an indirect online application to become a member of the international risk management committee!)
How does this relate to CISV? Quite obviously, CPR is usually mostly necessary with people, who suffer from chronic or acute heart disease. Among the kids and leaders in most of our camps this disease is quite rare. More common are way less dramatic emergencies like minor injuries or trauma. However, how much more shocking would it be, if you made the wrong decision when dealing with a serious situation with a kid participant.
How much emergencies are we talking about? Gaby from IO tells me, there are about 240-270 medical incidents every year, mostly minor scrapes, allergies, and broken bones. Also, a few people have to go home for medical reasons.
What I'm hinting at, is that if you are going to be a leader or staff in a camp soon, I strongly suggest, you get your first-aid skills up-to-date. Some NAs require a first-aid certificate, I would go beyond that and suggest that you specifically inform yourself about first-aid and children of the respective age-group.
If there's no course available in your area, here's at least two websites, that can help you be better prepared:
- http://kidshealth.org/pare
- CPR-Dude is also quite informative: http://www.cprdude.com/
- The American Heart Association even offers online courses for a few bucks:
http://www.onlineaha.org/i
Maybe NAs should also invite a first-aid trainer to their national leadership trainings, and focus in exactly the kind of incidents, that happen in camps. Or we even get CISV international to prepare a "first-aid"-reader with the most important rules for every camp.
(Oh...and just so that nobody gets me wrong - this is not an indirect online application to become a member of the international risk management committee!)