YouthWork & Learn students have been studying survival skills this season, from fire and shelter building to emergency first aid. This culminated in the official SOLO Wilderness First Aid (WFA) course, a two-day event resulting in certificates of completion for the students. We now have four staff members fully certified in WFA, and all our students have experience dealing with emergency care.
Doing a “chunk check” as part of the ABCDE’s of the primary survey
- In reviewing what we did and learned, Dillon wrote: [On February 27 and 28] “we had a wilderness first aid survival course. It was for 16 hours, 8 hours each on Thursday and Friday. The instructor was named Jeremy, and he is from New Hampshire. I learned about “ABCDE”, which stands for Air (or airflow), breathing, circulation, deformity and environment. This is how we treat a patient and the order we should go in.
We debriefed after every hands-on practice.
We also did many outside learning practices with fake injured persons. The one that stood out was with Juanita, Jim (science teacher), John (participant), and others. Juanita’s car was in the middle of the parking lot, parked sideways in the middle. Juanita was laying on the car’s hood. It appeared a drunk driver (John) hit her and Jim as well, as he was walking with his walking stick on the side of the road. People had fake blood/injuries on themselves. I was a part of the team helping Jim. I had to hold his head so it wouldn’t move.
Learning to make good splints
Another thing we learned about was writing/using SOAP notes. It is a document that records all the information you received from the patient if they were conscious. It can also record everything you did for a patient (checked vitals, etc). The course was a little tiring, but it was well worth it.”
When asked what he felt was the most important thing he learned in the course, Lucas replied, “not to panic.” Being able to stop, think, and assess a situation without reacting impulsively is not only a key skill for first aid but also an important life skill.
As well as running WFA for the students, we offered a second course to the public on Saturday and Sunday, subsidized by The Tutorial Center. We’re pleased to be able to share this opportunity with others, and we hope to sponsor the course again in the future.