Hi, Im a cadet that is doing a first aid course in a couple of weeks, i was wondering as one of the cadets doing it can i wear a stable belt? Please help
Thanks
Griff
I just completed my AFA with stable belt…it makes no difference
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Check with the staff running the course - I state no stable belts on my courses.
Plus, considering you’re potentially going to be rolling around on the floor, why would you want to?
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For any particular reason?
It states in AP1358C that cadets are permitted to wear stable belts. Can you tell us what uniform you will be wearing? I’d be concerned if they are running a course in blues
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In greens. all our FA courses are in greens
We do ours in civvies, just like staff do.
Don’t get the uniform for first aid just because they are cadets and we don’t have any rank among the cadets.
Sounds very scouty
If cadets and staff are training together the cadets are at least 16.
Instructors and students should wear No3 (equivalent for CIs) and rank should continue to apply.
Why? Does wearing uniform enhance the training? Or is it to bolster fragile egos.
When I say no rank I meant just between the cadets ie they are all on first name terms, otherwise it all sounds odd, unless you happen to have a cadet with the first name Corporal etc.
We don’t wear uniform And just wear civvies
Okay, I’ll bite…
Why? Does wearing civvies enhance the training? Or is it an unnecessary move away from the standard that as a uniformed training organization we conduct training whilst wearing uniform?
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There are a variety of loose reasons that you can use to justify wearing uniform for 1st Aid - extension of SST (safe clothing - known and acceptable range of movement, protection from harm, limited risk of harm from the clothing itself…), risk of damage to clothing, etc…
But at the end of the day, we are a uniformed training organisation and what discounts 1st aid from being a part of that? With the valid exceptions of AT and sports, what else do we do out of uniform?
I was questioned about stable belts and I could try to claim size of the buckle, physical activity, etc, but also I’d rather a cadet doesn’t risk damaging a reasonably costly bit of private purchase kit. I’ve never had a complaint from a cadet about it.
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The use of civies is relevent in that they are far more likely to not be in uniform when the skills are needed, use of everyday things that you would carry to school in bags/sports equipment or wear could be far more appropriate and provide a more realistic basis for a senario based activity.
I’d be concerned if cadets first aid skills were impeded in a real scenario just because someone wasn’t wearing civvies. Clothes have very little effect on the realism or training required for a scenario.
I’ve got to disagree.
Not with your suggestion that they are more likely to be out of uniform when a first aid situation arises, but with the implication that it makes any difference at all.
I don’t know what your first aid courses are like but ours certainly haven’t been teaching the use of “everyday things” which might be carried in a school bag… They teach the use of items found in a first aid kit.
Naturally one may have to improvise in the real world if the correct supplies are not available, but that is far from an ideal situation and it’s not really the business of a first aid course to teach cadets to use dirty school jumpers, or yesterday’s sports kit; any more than it would be to teach the use of an old smock or beret as a dressing which, in reality, would be no different to using civvies.
Certainly one could add a touch more “realism” by training in the clothing in which they are more likely to encounter such a situation, but what benefit would it bring? The skills don’t change when one changes clothes.
The St John’s Ambulance Cadets also train in uniform as it happens…
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Our quest for realism can only go so far though - do you run scenarios in jeans, pyjamas, shorts, bike leathers, school uniform…?
The uniform provides a safe and suitable standard of clothing for training, that’s easily and cheaply replaced if something happens to it that renders it u/s.
Personally I don’t see the need to run Courses in uniform “just because” although I get why some unis do.
If however First Aid is being run in Greens it’s a classroom lesson so Barrack Dress would apply and I see no reason why someone would ban stable belts.
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Thanks @daws1158
We were advised by our FA officer ALL first aid
Training is to be done in civvies as it’s a civilian course.
Also it was part of some strange agreement the corps did with ST Johns…
That said I duly ignored it, I wasn’t having cadets rolling about on the floor in their clothes when we could easily supply DPMs.
Regarding Stable belts, I’m not too sure what the latest
Regs say but it did at one point say stable belt ok for barrack activities and not for field activities. We got fed up with cadets not conforming we made it much simpler… DPM= no stable belt.