First Aid and Basic Life Support
What the exam tests
Primary survey, CPR and AED use, choking, bleeding, burns and the limits of a first aider's role.
Priorities
DRABC: Danger to you, the casualty and bystanders; Response; Airway; Breathing; Circulation. Call for help early and send for an AED. Consent: ask if the casualty is conscious; if unconscious, treat on the basis that a reasonable person would consent. Universal precautions: gloves, eye protection and a mouth barrier.
- Adult CPR: 30 compressions to 2 breaths, centre of the chest, 5-6 cm deep, 100-120 per minute, full recoil; continue until help arrives or the casualty recovers.
- Choking in adults: 5 back blows between the shoulder blades, then 5 abdominal thrusts; repeat.
- Severe bleeding: direct pressure and elevation; do not remove embedded objects.
- Burns: cool with running water for at least 20 minutes, remove jewellery, do not apply ice, butter or ointments, and do not burst blisters.
- Suspected spinal injury: do not move the casualty unless there is immediate danger.
Worked example
An adult collapses in the workshop, is unresponsive and makes occasional gasping sounds. Reasoning: agonal gasps are not normal breathing, so treat this as cardiac arrest. Start CPR at 30:2 immediately, send for the AED, apply it as soon as it arrives and continue until the emergency team takes over.
Traps
- Withholding CPR for fear of doing harm; in cardiac arrest, doing nothing is fatal.
- Giving an unconscious person water or food.
- Putting ice or butter on a burn.
- Moving a casualty with a suspected neck injury without need.