Why learn first aid? It’s not everyday that you see someone get hurt and are the only person around who can help, so it might not seem like a skill that everyone should know. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. You might not need first aid every day, but accidents happen when you least expect them. Sooner or later you’re likely to find yourself in a situation where every second counts and your skills could make the difference.
First aid isn’t just essential to learn, it’s easy too. Anyone and everyone can and should take a first aid training course so that when they find themselves in an emergency they won’t be powerless to help save lives. Not convinced? Here are five other reasons that answer the question “why learn first aid?”
1. Create a Safer Home, Workplace, and Community
Safety isn’t just about preventing accidents, it’s also about knowing how to respond when accidents happen anyway. That’s where knowing first aid comes in. The simple act of being trained in first aid or having someone around who is makes any environment safer, as well as everyone in it.
Accidents can occur at any time, no matter how careful people are. Prevention helps reduce the risk, but first aid training improves chances of survival when the worst manages to happen anyway. Sometimes the difference between safety and danger isn’t what precautions have been taken, it’s having someone who can act in an emergency when the safeguards fail.
2. Increase Chances of Survival in an Emergency Situation
People can fall, choke, break bones, have heart attacks, burn themselves, or have any emergency reaction anywhere. One of the crucial first steps is always to call triple zero, but emergency services can be precious minutes away. This goes double if you’re somewhere remote. By the time paramedics arrive, it may already be too late to reverse the damage.
By learning first aid you don’t have to wait helplessly for an ambulance, you can step in and provide immediate emergency care to stabilise a victim until the professional medical help arrives. Research shows that survival chances double or even triple when a bystander performs CPR within the first few minutes.
3. Life-Saving Skills Look Good on a CV
Having a first aid certification on your resume looks good when you’re applying for jobs. On top of the obvious workplace benefits, employers can see it as evidence that you take initiative when it comes to your own training, can handle high-pressure situations, and that you care about safety. These qualities are relevant to any job, industry, or workplace.
In fact, lots of workplaces don’t ask “why learn first aid”, they demand it. Some industries mandate basic first aid training or have legal first aid requirements to meet, meaning they will actively seek out candidates with this training. In particular, construction, aged care, and childcare education and care setting jobs all require a certain number of staff who have first aid training, and they’ll look highly upon people who show up with the qualification already in hand.
4. Included CPR Training
First aid and CPR knowledge and skills go hand in hand. The HLTAID011 Provide First Aid qualification also includes training covered by the HLTAID009 Provide Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation course. This means that you learn two life-saving skills in one training course.
While a CPR course can be taken independently, and refresher training needs to be taken yearly instead of every three years as with first aid, learning it alongside first aid gives you better context for when and how to use it. You’ll learn how to recognise medical emergencies where you need to use CPR, like cardiac arrest and heart attacks.
5. Skills For Even The Smallest Problems
First aid isn’t only about the difference between life and death, it’s also useful for fixing those smaller, everyday problems that you’re more likely to encounter. Splinters, sprains, cuts, and nosebleeds are all even easier to deal with when you know the first aid basics.
Not to mention that small problems can spiral into big ones if you don’t take care of them properly. These minor maladies can get infected if left untreated, but by learning first aid you can prevent further harm and keep these little nuisances from growing bigger.
Why Learn First Aid? Get First Aid Training Today!
Why learn first aid? Now you know! First aid is easy to learn, easy to do, and can be useful at a moment’s notice. Whether it’s dealing with a serious emergency where lives are on the line or a paper cut, when you learn first aid you can help keep people safe, save a life, and fast track their road to recovery.
Taking a first aid course is one of the easiest things you can do to take better care of yourself, your friends and family, and even strangers. But it’s only useful if you learn it before you need it; it’ll be too late if you decide to get training after the worst has happened. Don’t wait, stop asking “why learn first aid?” and take the first step today!
FAQs
What Items Should Be in A First Aid Kit?
A basic first aid kit should include bandages of various sizes, sterile gauze pads, adhesive tape, antiseptic wipes, disposable gloves, scissors, tweezers, and a CPR face shield. You should also have pain relief medication, antihistamines, burn gel, a thermal blanket, and a first aid manual.
What First Aid Skills Do I Need for Choking?
You need to learn how to assess whether a choking person can cough or if their airway is completely blocked. The technique involves encouraging coughing first, then delivering back blows followed by chest thrusts if the airway remains blocked. The Heimlich manoeuvre is no longer recommended.
How Do I Know If I Should Be Performing CPR?
You should perform CPR when someone is unconscious and not breathing normally. Check for responsiveness by tapping them and calling out, then check their breathing for no more than 10 seconds. If they aren’t breathing, call emergency services and begin CPR.
