Range first aid cover

I think ELS is a different course. I don’t envy you doing the Police one, I have heard it’s gash. FPOS is the qual below Paramedic, or so I am lead to believe, that’s the only one that’s current anyway. Certain Close protection companies offer FPOS variants as well.

It’s honestly like people just throw stuff together and make up courses with a fancy name.

I wouldn’t believe that about the Seals, I will be looking for articles now though. The Asherman Chest seals were alright and got replaced with the Bolin Chest seals and they were a lot better than a three sided dressing.

O2 isn’t a prescribed drug either. So as far as I am aware you can administer that. But it has considerations when and when not to use. If you are trained, qualified and competent in its use.

A basic trauma kit or control kit for GSWs would be 2 FFDs (entry and exit) TQ, haemostatics(can’t be used on abdominal injuries).
I have this argument with lads that carry the typical off the shelf FAK, they are suitable for very minor stuff of personal hygiene, not the best for trauma.

I don’t want to start asking too many questions because I don’t want to see a knee jerk reaction that ends up with ranges stopped or too impractical to run.

Most Police Forces doesn’t seem to take First Aid seriously at a management level (outside of Public Order) on the basis that it’s someone else’s responsibility. (Most police forces have removed Fire Extinguishers from vehicles on the same premise).

The Cadet Forces seem to work on the principle that ranges are so tightly controlled you aren’t going to get a gunshot injury and to be fair they have a point. If you look at the way we shoot i’d be far more worried about fingers in working parts (AFA can handle that) than someone getting shot.

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I am sure that’s a similar attitude they had on the titanic. And for something more relevant, I am pretty sure that’s what they said about the fire regulations at Grenwell.

And that’s a shocking attitude for the police to have. But I agree and have heard it from other lads. Which is disappointing.

Sadly with the services and increasingly with the forces, it’s all about the hierarchy disappearing up their own back end, forgetting about those on the frontline, preaching without following their own procedures and thinking they are special. Then when it goes belly up, blame the poor sods on the frontline, declare national holidays and dish out some medals to the Orifices.

Fingers caught it working parts would be minor. A GSW would be major. With major complications, considerations and consequences. You should be training for the worst and hoping for the best.

You cannot conceivably train for the worst possible outcome at all times, that’s the kind of risk averse thinking that has crippled us for years.

Is it possible there will be a gunshot wound on the ranges? Yes. Is it even remotely likely considering all of the controls in place? No. So why would we expect our first alders to be trained for it? That would be just the sort of obstacle which would prevent all shooting for no good reason. Even our risk assessment forms say “residual risk acceptable” on them.

Policing is in a rock and a hard place in that it ends up responsible for the shortcomings everywhere else. You have finite resources, finite budgets and finite time, when is all this training supposed to take place? I personally spend 3 weeks a year on refresher training of one kind or another, give me a meaningful first aid qualification and you are getting on for 4 weeks training, when would I actually be doing my job?

Someones got to be!

I disagree. FAW technically does deal with it. As stated above. It’s a serious bleed. Patch and wait for professional medical help.

That attitude of “well everything’s in place it can’t happen” doesn’t sit well with me. By all means mitigate and put in place reasonable measures, but to flat out deny it would ever happen, is very naive. And is borderline complacency.

But yes, at what point does it become impractical. FAW should be enough. But it comes down to who feels competent to deal with it.

If someone is FAW trained, and FAW is enough, but the person in question doesn’t feel competent or confident dealing with the worst case scenario, then it becomes a problem.

Usual military attitude. Spend 11 of 12 months training for something because there’s sod all else to do during the week.
Usual emergency service attitude: we can’t cope with the daily response stuff so taking us out for yet another course just means the front line suffers.

Who’s right. Who’s wrong. Who knows. I have a theory.

I know it is a skill the police need to have and that the public might expect them to have, and I also know it would take far less than 4 weeks to provide it. They simply lack the will.

Stop closing local control centres, would be a start.

Unless it’s over reported / speculated about I would have thought the rise in gun / knife crime in even the backwaters, the police would be trained to a higher level to deal with situations.
As they tell us on FAW courses the first couple of minutes are crucial.

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To get back to the OP, no, remote first aid won’t do, and I thought it did and was happily using it. Turns out there are a couple of different modules. You might have some luck going back to your original training provider and asking if you can do the missing modules and be recertified; I’m going to try that myself.

FAW has huge chunks in it that you don’t need either on a range or in Policing. (Since we seem to have 2 separate conversations going on at the moment).

AFA covers bleeding (as do most ELS Courses). I’m not saying we won’t one day get a gunshot wound on a range. But to require staff to be trained for a for real gunshot wound just isn’t practical, firstly AFA/FAW don’t prepare you for that, no matter how confident you are in day to day first aid, so you would be looking at some sort of bespoke training, it’s hard enough to et range staff as it is without adding that sort of course on top. The best way to mitigate that risk is to work to prevent accidents in the first place, which you sonny maintaining the ratios and standards on the range. (Something which all of the Cadet forces seem to do very well).

As for Policing funding and numbers have gotten to the state in some places that training is going out the window. (Was informed by a colleague on Police Scotland that they are so skint the fire brigade are doing doors for them as they have no one MOE trained and no budget for training). From what I can see most forces have cut ELS down to the bones, CPR, Recovery Posifion, Bleeds, Diabetes, Astmha, Shock and Anaphalxia, anything else, do nothing wait for an ambulance appears to be the order of the day, literally a few hours refresher each year. (The MET do it as part of the annual Hong Kong Fooey refresher).

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But this is the same for the last 2/3 FAW requals I have done. With bikes and cars used by ambulance services as fast response, unless you’re out in the boondocks, you don’t wait like you used to. My first few courses you were it and expected to do a lot more I seem to feel and that’s when there was a bigger emergency service.

I do however feel that being a first aider should be a voluntary thing, as you need to be comfortable in using the knowledge and information you have. I volunteered at work and despite getting a retainer at work, it’s like pulling teeth to get others to volunteer. I recall my first ever FAW and being told as a first aider you are not obligated to treat people, so if you have a first aider who has been told they have to do a FA course. who isn’t confident should they be expected to treat people?