There are so many reasons it is important to learn basic first aid. In cases of physical danger, if there is an accident and no one is around, or if someone needs medical attention quickly, being able to perform first aid can save a life. This is an easy thing to put off and people can come up with a whole myriad of reasons not to learn it, like they don’t know where to learn it, they feel like they don’t have time, they are optimistic that they or their loved ones will never get hurt, or they think help will always be there in time. The truth is, an EMT paramedic can only get to you or your loved one so fast, so by you being familiar with first aid, you could really be preventing a situation from going from bad to worse. Below are a few detailed reasons why learning first aid is a good idea.
1.) You could save a life
If you are trained in how to give a first aid response, then if or when an emergency situation happens, you will be trained how to respond in a confident, controlled manner knowing exactly what needs to be done so that the injured party is more likely to make it out alive.
2.) You can help the injured party relax
If you are with a person who gets injured and you know how to perform first aid response, you can immediately help de-escalate the situation and help the injured party start to focus and remain calm. When you know how to assess the situation and treat their primary injuries until trained emergency responders are able to get to the scene, then the injured person will be able to relax and feel comforted in that their injuries are being treated and they will be okay.
3.) It can keep a situation from going bad to worse
If someone is in a bad accident or they have an emergency health situation arise, then it is vitally important to start giving the person basic first aid care so that their situation does not deteriorate any further. This is especially true when someone is in a bad accident as injuries that are not assessed and quickly taken care of with basic first aid can quickly deteriorate and lead to issues that are not reversible. When you know how to provide basic first aid care to a patient, you can get them stable enough to be able to wait until trained emergency services get to the scene.
4.) You will learn how to use surrounding tools
In many emergency situations that arise, it is nearly impossible to tell when or where it will happen. This means that there may not even be a first aid kit around at the time that the emergency occurs. For example, if you are in a home or office where there is not a first aid kit but there are a lot of household items around, learning basic first aid care can teach you how to use whatever tools and materials are around you to help you cope in whatever situation you may find yourself in.
5.) Learn how to write information as it happens
First aid training will not only teach you how to take care of a patient if they are hurt, sick, or injured, but this type of training will also teach you how to get the injured party’s information and how to collect as much data as possible about the person to give to the emergency responders when they arrive. Learning how to do this will save the EMTs valuable time which will allow them to get the patient stable and on the road to recovery faster then they would be able too if they knew nothing about the patient. The kind of data you collect will be things like their full names, birthdates, any medical allergies, and what exactly is ailing them. With this information, the EMTs can get the patient on the road to recovery in no time.
A person who is trained in how to do basic first aid can better assess what is going on around them which could help when an emergency arises. Knowing first aid means that you could promote a safer surrounding, keeping people safe with fewer accidents and casualties.