What are the types of basic first aid skills

There is no uniform rigid classification standard for basic first aid skills. The industry generally follows the usage rate in daily emergency scenarios. The core covers five categories: bleeding treatment, airway obstruction relief, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (including AED use), basic trauma treatment, and preliminary emergency identification. They are all practical skills that ordinary people can master after 1-2 hours of training.

I have been doing community first aid training for almost three years, and the most common question I encounter is "I'm stupid, can't I learn this?" I really worry about it, because these skills have no threshold. I just finished teaching the Heimlich maneuver to the aunts in the community last week. The next day, an aunt sent me a voice message saying that her grandson was stuck eating peanuts. She pressed her abdomen three times as taught, and the peanuts were immediately coughed up. Before, she would have just held the baby and cried while waiting for the ambulance. The risk would have been great.

What is more critical than airway obstruction is the situation of cardiac arrest. At this time, you will perform chest compressions in a standardized manner and find nearby AEDs to operate, which are real life-saving skills. Last month, an office worker in the business district of our district fainted due to a heart attack. There happened to be an employee of a milk tea shop nearby who had participated in our training. He pressed the button for three minutes and cooperated with the AED for defibrillation. The person resumed breathing on his own before the ambulance arrived. If we had to wait until 120, the golden four minutes would have passed long ago, and there was a high probability that we would not be able to save him.

The most commonly used skills on a daily basis are actually related to basic trauma treatment. Hemostatic bandaging for cuts and bruises, cold braking after a sprained foot, showering and cooling after burns and scalds, and wound washing after scratches by cats and dogs are all essential skills in high-frequency scenarios. Don’t take it seriously. Last month, a high school student broke his arm while playing basketball. His classmates came up and rubbed it and helped him pull his arm. It was originally just a slight bone fracture, but it was forced to become displaced. It was finally reset after surgery. If you know some basic trauma fixation knowledge and temporarily tie it with a cardboard and don’t move it, you won’t be able to suffer this crime.

Another category that is easily overlooked is the initial emergency identification skills, such as the FAST principle for determining stroke. To put it bluntly, it means looking at whether the face is crooked, whether one arm can be lifted flat, and whether the speech is clear or unclear. If something is wrong, call 120 immediately, don’t wait for a while. When someone faints, first check the surroundings for dangers such as electricity leakage, traffic, and falling objects. Call 120 to clarify the specific address and patient’s status. These seemingly inconspicuous common sense are the prerequisites for all first aid operations.

There are two completely opposite voices on the Internet now. One says that it is useless for ordinary people to learn first aid. It is not professional anyway and just call 120. The other says that if you want to learn, you must learn everything, including suturing and intubation. Those of us who do front-line training actually feel that both of these are a bit extreme. The core of ordinary people learning basic first aid is to help patients minimize injuries during the "golden time" before the ambulance arrives. There is no need to pursue 100% standard operations. Even if the pressure is slightly off when stopping bleeding, it is better than letting the blood flow uninterrupted. There is no need to learn too professional invasive operations. Those are the scope of responsibilities of medical staff.

If you are really interested, go to the local Red Cross or take a free first aid class in the community for two hours. You can basically get started with these skills. When you really encounter something, it will be much more useful than standing on the sidelines and panicking.