First Aid and Emergency Nursing
First Aid and Emergency Nursing tests your ability to prioritise, act within your scope of practice and avoid harm in the first minutes of an emergency.
Core rules
- Primary survey: Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, Exposure. Catastrophic haemorrhage is controlled first in the C-ABC variant.
- Adult CPR: compressions at 100–120/min, depth 5–6 cm, full chest recoil, ratio 30:2, minimal interruptions, and an AED as soon as it arrives.
- Burns: cool with running water for at least 20 minutes, remove jewellery, cover with cling film. Never apply ice, butter, toothpaste or cotton wool. Rule of Nines in adults: head 9%, each arm 9%, each leg 18%, front trunk 18%, back trunk 18%, perineum 1%.
- Snake bite: immobilise the limb at heart level, remove rings, transport rapidly. Do not cut, suck, apply a tight tourniquet or use ice.
- Choking adult: alternate 5 back blows with 5 abdominal thrusts.
- Shock: lie the casualty flat, raise the legs, keep warm, give nothing by mouth.
Worked example
An adult has burns over the whole of both legs and the perineum. Surface area = (18 × 2) + 1 = 37%. Reasoning: the Rule of Nines already counts each whole leg as 18% around its full circumference, so front and back must not be counted twice - that double count is the commonest overestimate in exams.
Traps that cost marks
- Starting compressions before checking response and breathing.
- Giving food or water to a semi-conscious casualty.
- Applying a tight tourniquet to a minor bleed that responds to direct pressure.