3 Reasons To Strengthen Your First Aid Training Knowledge

On September 10, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies commemorated World First Aid Day, an annual event that promotes the value of first aid. The theme for this year was “Lifetime First Aid,” a call for people, regardless of age, to practice first aid and help keep their localities healthier and safer.

In every medical emergency, a person’s chance of survival depends on whether or not first aid is present and how expertly the first aider administrated it. Research data shows proper first aid can avert over half of injury-induced deaths. The time spent waiting for emergency medical services (EMS) is better spent on providing some form of relief.

Further studies show that most people will call for help upon witnessing an accident, but only a few can administer first aid. If you need compelling reasons to learn the trade, let alone advance it, consider the following:

1. EMS Response Times Are Getting Longer

In 2017, a research paper published in JAMA Surgery measured the time it takes for EMS units to arrive at the patient. While 71% of the 1.8 million encounters studied resulted in a successful pickup by the EMS unit, the average waiting time was almost eight minutes. The time was seven minutes in suburban and urban areas, while it doubled to 14 minutes in the countryside.

Sources on whether or not the wait times improved years after the study are scarce. However, a letter submitted to a committee hearing in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, in 2019 implies the latter. It outlined five encounters between 2018 and 2019, averaging 8.4 minutes. One of the encounters even clocked in at 12 minutes, even with the ambulance’s sirens blaring.

For the record, placing blame on EMS for such delays is unfair. Not all places in the U.S. come with a well-equipped clinic or hospital, and local 911 services struggle with locating patients in the era of smartphones.

Nevertheless, it only takes less than five minutes for severe bleeding to become fatal. Fractures and dislocations risk complications if left untreated for too long. Knowing how to apply a splint in four easy steps or a tourniquet to curb severe bleeding can mean a huge difference.

2. Accident Deaths Are at A Record High

First aid experts will often say that the only thing worse than death is a death that could’ve been averted. A report compiled by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2021 stated that two out of three premature deaths globally were preventable.

Road accidents and suicide were the second most prevalent, accounting for 21% of preventable deaths (the most pervasive is cancer at 31%). You’d think road accidents should be getting less and less frequent due to recent technological advances like automatic braking and bipartisan laws supporting safer roads.

However, in the U.S., not only has the number of road accident fatalities increased, it reached a 20-year high. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently logged an estimated 9,560 deaths in road mishaps for the first quarter of 2022, the highest since 2002. Total fatalities reached over 42,000 in 2021, the highest since 2005.

If this trend persists over the following years, it may reach the point that learning first aid isn’t optional anymore. The likelihood of you being the closest person to the crash site increases, let alone the only one who can buy time for EMS to arrive on the scene. The twisted wreckage can complicate first aid efforts, hence the need for advanced training.

3. Natural Disasters Are Growing More Frequent

A first aid kit is an indispensable component of disaster preparedness. Natural disasters are far more unpredictable than artificial ones and cause more damage. A person bleeding out from a piece of debris lodged into their arm or suffering from a broken leg after being hit by flying debris will undoubtedly need immediate care.

Expect such scenarios to become more common as natural disasters grow in frequency. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information recorded nine climate disasters that inflicted over USD$1 billion in damage in June. Although slightly above the 1980-2021 yearly average of 7.7 events, between 2017 and 2021, the average was 17.8 events.

Earthquakes may or may not be an exception in this case, but climate change can soften the ground enough for tremors to inflict damage. Experts say it isn’t necessarily the tremor that’s deadly but its effects afterward—falling debris, collapsing buildings, or falling from a great height due to collapsing buildings.

Conclusion

As mishaps and natural disasters become more recurrent, first responders will be stretched thin, responding to more incidents than before. An unharmed bystander will be the victim’s source of hope for the first several minutes following an incident. Whether or not they’re a doctor doesn’t matter to first aid. Anyone with adequate training can save a life.