Regarding first aid, the Resuscitation Council UK has issued guidelines for the first time within the updated 2025 update, there may have to be a rethink in how and what is taught.
Ironically they say to assess the casualty for life threatening bleeding but fail to use the (C)ABCDE method of assessment.
It seems a lot of people are also moving away from the ABCDE assessment method to MARCH.
When I renewed my ALS certification 4 years, CABCDE was taught.
Resuscitation Council UK are the body adjudged to be the organisation by which all standards of resuscitation are defined.
The two things there that differ from how we currently do things are use of haemostats and TQs, and how courses are tailored.
Both of these things I agree with them about. I think we should be taught basic would packing/haemostats, chest seals and TQs on more courses in the UK. And I also think those of us utilising these courses to use our outdoorsy quals should really have more tailored training.
This link and conversation may be worth an open thread?
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It should be taught that way still, but isnāt in their guidance despite the wording they use. Seems like a miss.
They talk about adminstering oxygen as well which is an advanced skill so I think theyāve gone a little off piste with the guidance.
This guidance was published last night. Within scuba diving oxygen administration is covered by the PADI oxygen syllabus and in FREC 3 courses.
The fear of TQs in the organisation is one I canāt get my head around, Iāve carried one in my FA kit for years and been told more than once āyou canāt have/use that youāll get in troubleā.
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Itās not just us though. Itās a super common fear in the UK, and I do not understand it.
A cat bleed will kill in seconds. The only thing that will stop it is serious pressure from a TQ or packing out a would (location dependant!). All this nonsense weāre taught about putting your hand on it then getting a bandage over it etc will just end up with that person bleeding out.
It really winds me up. Especially after doing the cat-bleeds course and, firstly, only being taught about TQs, so useless if someone is shot in the torso or junctioanlly. And secondly, being told Iām not now allowed to carry a TQ more widely. I can only use this skill on a range with a TQ from the MedMOD069.
The latter point I have ignored, and purchased two that I keep in the car with my other FA kit, and hope to God I never come across an accident that needs them to be used.
I watch a fair bit of Youtube stuff coming out of the US, and TQs, wound packing, chest seals etc are all taught on very standard FA courses.
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Yeah, Iām trained outside of my hobby, if I need to carry out lifesaving first aid Iām not going to refrain because someone in the FA team will wet their pants. Doubt it would look good in the press if you save someoneās life and end up under investigation.
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In Liverpool since 2019 there have been bleed control kits which are wall mounted in parts of the city, some taxi drivers carry them, some pubs have them. Same as defibs, you contact 999 they give a code to gain access, they include a tourniquet, cheats seal gloves dressings and trauma shears. Street doctors go into schools and organisations to provide training.
The US are more proactive in trauma management. Chicago, a city of 2.74 million, last weekend 18 people shot 4 fatally, End of August 30 shot 3 fatally in a weekend.
Weāve seen these pop up more and more around town in Sussex too. I know of multiple in the town I work in, and others in nearby towns.
All the more reason to introduce these bits of kit into ānormalā first aid courses.
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The Q was asked in VoP and the answer was essentially āwe deliver this course to meet the bare-minimum requirement for running a rangeā. (Iām paraphrasing with exaggeration, I donāt remember the exact answers) I honestly donāt think the course is delivered with the intention of saving lives. Itās there to tick a box. Sadly.
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Thereās also a real risk to our people.
If we donāt equip them to succeed in such a traumatic situation then weāre adding trauma to trauma.
Itās like people whoāve been taught to believe that CPR is going to have the casualty suddenly start gasping for air and shaking it off ā you end up with people walking around wondering why they failed to save a life and blaming themselves.
We need to equip people to understand the shock and severity of what they could see, then equip them to do what is needed with the understanding the odds arenāt in their favour.
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I suspect there would be no proper post incident debrief of the participants in an incident from the RAFAC.
Something that is never mentioned is that failure to resuscitate somebody is not āfailureā but that sometimes you cannot beat the odds of survival and itās better to have tried and failed rather than not to try at all.
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If you are D13 qualified, then you put yourself on duty as a police officer, not an RAFAC officer.
I assume D13 sits at level D in the skills framework (based on the name 
) so equivalent to FREC L3?
I really would like to know how (& who) assessed the risk for first aid requirements for CADET shooting activities. Similarly, how many close shaves have there been over day the last 10 yrs across all the cadet organisations?
Obviously, worst case = fatality, & we certainly donāt want that.
However, compared to military adult shooting trg, there are marked differences - for example, we donāt do live fire night shoots on a field firing range.
We do have to add a briefing note to RSDs to state that if a firer needs to wear eye correction, guess what, they should wear it for shooting - one Army fatality caused that change. To me, that should have been an absolute āmustā - how did that get missed?
Cadets also donāt wear helmets and body armour, so itās swings and roundabouts.
To be honest, I used to leave my glasses off when shooting with iron sights, as theyād tend to get scratched otherwise. Ironically, I would wear them for SUSAT shoots.
isnāt that partly the cause of the problem, not releasing the cocking handle 
Not as such, live firing with movement + more wpn types + other ordnance, etc.
Our firing exercises are much more mundane / simpler.