'Everyone should know first aid'
David Finnegan, who has almost two decades of dealing with emergencies since he joined the National Ambulance Service, says a common reaction when he and his colleagues attend an incident is people at the scene wondering what they could have done to help.
“If more people had basic first aid training, many accident outcomes could be different,” he says. “It’s all about people knowing what to do, and having the confidence to do it.”
With care expert Sharon Landy, whom he met in the Red Cross, David has set up Emergency Training & Education (ETE), a service which will offer businesses, schools, and community organisations training in a variety of emergency response techniques.
David is a qualified emergency first aid tutor, having spent the last two years teaching at the National Ambulance School’s College in Tallaght, Dublin. Over the past year ETE has been establishing full compliance with the standards required by the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC), the only training standard recognised by the Health and Safety Authority. The service is now fully qualified as instructors under the First Aid Response (FAR) programme.
“People often ask me how do I actually do the job when I’m responding to a major incident,” David says. “I was like that myself when I started … it’s all about training, and having the confidence to do what is necessary that training gives.”
As far as he is concerned, it is training that can start at a very young age, and even before setting up the ETE service he made many visits to schools to talk to children, and their teachers, about basic first aid response. “You can teach children to do CPR, for instance, and they are never too young. Once they know, they have that skill for life.”
In schools there are also concerns about dealing with emergencies in children who may have allergies, or ailments such as asthma, diabetes, or epilepsy. “Teachers worry about this. Again, it’s a matter of being taught how to recognise the real symptoms, not to go red-alert at every cough or sneeze. And then to have the knowledge to deal with any related real emergency.”
All workplaces are required to have both first aid facilities and equipment, and people trained to use them, under Occupational First Aid regulations in the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. This is an area where David sees a significant opportunity for ETE.
“Because of the legal requirement, there is a demand out there from businesses for training. It’s like many have to provide manual handling courses for their staff as a health and safety issue. Any business or organisation can have a sudden emergency to deal with amongst staff or customers or members. Having properly certified first aid responders can also be an important matter for insurance.”
Leaving aside institution and business first aid matters, Davis is passionate about everybody having an interest in learning to deal with an emergency situation. “We’re all a bit guilty of thinking that accidents happen to other people. But an event can happen right on your doorstep, or you may happen on one while out. What you decide to do can often decide an outcome for the victim.” He says that even having the confidence of being able to go to the injured person and say ‘I’m going to help and get you help’ can be very powerful and reassuring.
“Also I’ve found at accident scenes that if there has been somebody who had knowledge and a plan and goes with it, everybody else at the incident will fall in behind that leadership.”
And he notes that there are documented incidences of that leadership having come from a child at the scene, who may have been the only one there who had basic training in CPR.
“First aid is for everyone," he repeats, with emphasis.
This article was first published on the Kilcullen page of The Kildare Nationalist.
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