FIRST AID

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Aims and Scope
First Aid is without doubt a useful subject, not only for students, but also for the general public, since emergency incidents in the streets, at work or at home that require assistance have recently been on the increase. The aim of this course is to teach the student in a scientific yet simple way how to use available means to provide care to patients or injured people in sudden life-threatening situations. The course aims to contribute to the preservation of human life—the best reward for attending the course.

After completing the course the students would be able to:

• Provide first aid in specific situations (e.g. drowning, choking) if necessary.
• Provide first aid to a collapsed victim (BLS/AED).
• Treat a patient in an organised hospital unit or outpatient clinic.
• Know how to use simple objects/instruments to provide first aid.

SYLLABUS

Theoretical – Teaching Units
1. Introduction, aims of first aid, first steps, assessment of the patient, examination and removal of clothes.
2. Injury due to mechanical causes, abrasion, contusion, trauma, fracture, dislocation, sprain, cranium fracture, facial fracture, spinal column fracture, extremities fracture, road accident injury, beating, biting.
3. Haemorrhage. Types of haemorrhage, clinical presentation, first aid. Haemorrhage from various organs, abnormal haemorrhage (rhinorrhagia, otorrhagia, gastrorrhagia, haemoptysis, varicose/haemorrhoids). Haemostasis, first aid.
4. Foreign bodies. Foreign body in the skin (spiculae, hooks), the eye, the nose
5. the ear, swallowing a foreign body.
6. Injury due to natural causes. Heat (burn, heatstroke), cold (frostbite, perniosis), sun, sunstroke, electricity (electrocution, lightning strike), irradiation, drowning, choking, crash syndrome.
7. Burns (types, classification, clinical presentation, first aid).
8. Abnormal signs that necessitate first aid. Pulse, pain (headache, toothache, earache, abdominal pain, fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, fainting, loss of consciousness, shock, coma, stroke, epilepsy, spasms, allergic reactions, bronchial asthma exacerbation, heart attack, angina).
9. Introduction to artificial breathing and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Basic life support (BLS) for adults. Position for resuscitation. Basic life support for children and infants.
10. Use of automated external defibrillator in conjunction with basic life support in adults, children and infants (AED & BLS).
11. Bandages, types and varieties. Triangular bandages, head bandages, bandages for the upper extremity, the chest, the hand and foot, the mandible, the knee and elbow. Cylindrical bandages: wrist and upper extremity. Figure-eight bandaging of the elbow, the upper extremity, the fingers and the foot. Bandaging the head and the eye. Reticular bandages. Splints.
12. Carrying a patient. Stretchers, deploying a stretcher, placing a patient on the stretcher, other types of stretchers. Carrying the patient or injured person, carrying on a stretcher, with the hands, on the shoulders, transfer to vehicle.
13. Poisoning and antidotes, signs and symptoms of poisoning, first aid after poisoning, removing and neutralising the poison.
14. Injections. Oxygen and its use. Rationale of indicative risk signs, protection, and rescue. Chemicals and food additives. Contents of a First Aid kit.

The laboratory part of the course aims at giving the students practice in the above, on an adult and a child model (bandages, injections, basic life support, use of automated external defibrillator).
1. Clinical examination and evaluation of the patient’s condition. First steps, assessing the patients, examination and removal of clothes. Application of first aid for abnormal signs that necessitate immediate care: Pulse, pain (headache, toothache, earache, abdominal pain), fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, fainting, shock, loss of consciousness, coma, stroke, epilepsy, spasms, heart attack, angina, abnormal haemorrhage (rhinorrhagia, otorrhagia, gastrorrhagia, haemoptysis, varicose, haemorrhoids).
2. Introduction to artificial breathing and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Adult CPR application. Practice in basic life support (BLS) for adults and placing the patient in the recovery position.
3. Child and infant CPR. Practice in basic life support (BLS) for adults and placing the patient in the recovery position.
4. Resuscitation’s position.
5. Use of an automated external defibrillator. Practice in correct and safe use of automated external defibrillator in conjunction with basic life support (AED & BLS).
6. Integrated repetition of CPR.
7. Transfer of the injured patient. Practice in the use of stretchers, in positioning the victim on the stretcher, other types of stretchers. Carrying the patient or the injured person, transfer in a stretcher, carrying in the arms, on shoulder or by vehicle.
8. Bandages and splints. Immobilization of bone fractures. Practice in the application of bandages, types of bandages. Triangular bandages: bandaging the head, the upper extremity, the chest, the hand, the foot, the mandible, the knee and the elbow. Cylindrical bandages: bandaging the wrist and the upper extremity. Figure-eight bandaging of the elbow, the upper extremity, the fingers and the foot. Bandaging the head and the eye. Reticular bandages. Splints.
9. Treatment of injury-burn. Ischemic ligature. Haemostasis. Application of techniques for countering haemorrhage.
10. First Aid in injuries caused by a) mechanical and b) physical agents, drowning, choking (Heimlich operation), electrocution, thunderstruck. c) Foreign body in the skin (spiculae – hooks), the eye, the nose, the ear, swallowing a foreign body. Application of techniques. d) First aid in poisoning, signs and symptoms of poisoning, removal and neutralisation of the poison, special treatment and antidotes
11. Manner of management of car accidents, attitude in fires, earthquakes and others mass disasters.
12. Basic principles for medications injection. Preparation of home and car first aid-kit. Oxygen and its use. Practice in giving injections and in the application of the oxygen mask.
13. Laboratory examinations of the semester (spring). Oral or writing type examination according to the judgement of the professor of the academic course.