Quarter 1

Two days ago I successfully completed a basic First Aid course and still have that "feel good" feeling! I felt really nervous beforehand because for me, learning the skills to possibly save someone's life, seemed a particularly daunting prospect. The course was well attended and was held locally. I was a little more at ease when I realised that the course was made up of practical as well as theoretical first aid and was not a 'sit-down' exam scenario.

The course instructor helped to put us all at ease by approaching each subject covered quite light heartedly but with lots of encouragement during the practice exercises, in which we were all required to participate.

Personally, I wasn't phased by the prospect of having to practice mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a dummy, and I was quite prepared to receive my share of comments whilst doing the exercise. The whole course was underlined with the seriousness of the issues broached and there was room for plenty of interaction & discussion in a relaxed manner which I feel, helped us all.

I feel I would definitely welcome the chance of completing a higher level of first-aid training, even though my bandaging techniques left a lot to be desired. In fact, even after lots of practice I was still quite rubbish in my attempt at various types of slings!

As I have already said, I left the course with a sense of achievement and feeling confident in the knowledge that if need be, I would be more prepared to tackle a situation in which I would previously have dreaded being involved. At least now I hope that I would be able to offer practical help at the scene of an accident and wouldn't resort to screaming uncontrollably whilst running away.