Health Education: Safety, Injury Prevention, and Emergency Response
This domain tests your ability to teach injury prevention and to perform and sequence emergency care correctly. Items use realistic scenarios and reward precise numbers: compression rate, depth, ratio, and the order of actions.
Universal emergency action plan
Check the scene for safety and check responsiveness → call 911 and send for an AED → care (CPR, AED, bleeding control). Do not delay care to search for a pulse as a lay rescuer; the absence of normal breathing in an unresponsive person means start CPR.
CPR and AED numbers
- Adult: 30 compressions to 2 breaths, rate 100–120/min, depth at least 2 inches, full chest recoil, minimal interruptions, breaths of about 1 second with visible chest rise.
- Child: 30:2 for a single rescuer, 15:2 for two rescuers; depth about 2 inches. Infant: 30:2 single rescuer, 15:2 two rescuers, depth about 1.5 inches, two fingers or two-thumb-encircling technique.
- Compression-only CPR is recommended for untrained bystanders.
- AED pads: right upper chest and left lower lateral chest; dry a wet chest, remove medication patches, clear everyone before the shock.
Choking, bleeding, and other emergencies
Adult/child choking: abdominal thrusts. Infant choking: 5 back blows then 5 chest thrusts - never abdominal thrusts on an infant. Severe bleeding: direct pressure, then a tourniquet 2–3 inches above the wound (not over a joint), recording the time. Poison Help: 1-800-222-1222. Burns: cool running water. Sprains: rest, ice, compression, elevation. Seizure: protect the head, do not restrain the limbs, do not place anything in the mouth, time the seizure.
Worked example
A 14-year-old collapses in the gym, is unresponsive, and is not breathing normally. Reasoning and sequence: confirm the scene is safe, tap and shout, send a specific student to call 911 and another to fetch the AED, begin chest compressions immediately at 100–120/min to at least 2 inches depth, attach the AED as soon as it arrives, clear during analysis and shock, and resume compressions immediately after the shock until EMS takes over. Note: an unresponsive athlete with normal breathing after a blow to the chest may need suspicion of commotio cordis; gasping is not normal breathing.
Traps that cost marks
- Giving abdominal thrusts to an infant.
- Delaying compressions to find a carotid pulse or to reposition the head repeatedly.
- Placing a tourniquet directly over the elbow or knee.
- Offering food or water to someone who is unresponsive or seizing.