Very poor teaching on their part. Where I live in Liverpool they teach school children trauma first aid because of the risk of catastrophic haemorrhage from stabbings. Sad but true.
A leg wound may look to be inconsequential but they can be fatal, watch 24 hours in police custody from C4 from the last two episodes, the victim dies of a knife wound in the femoral artery and he bled out very quickly.
Good luck with your course.
As much as I agree with the principle, we have to teach the course that St John Ambulance accredits us for.
So, @PigeonpatrolerFR, while all the things above about CABC are interesting background, your assessment will be based on the St John Ambulance Youth First Aid course and the methods you have been taught as part of the course.
Which appears sadly, not to teach current clinical practice in pre-hospital casualty management.
They told us that we would most likely see an external catastrophic haemorage, so ill be sure to ask if during the assessment they make it obvious
Well that just sounds like ignorance. If u lookked for the initial signs e.g screaming, then u shouldve been fine and you wouodnt be wasting time if theyre screaming coz then u know they mist likely can breathe
Thankyou, youve been helpful! Just one thing though. How do you treat cardiac arrest can i touch them since its electrical orā¦
Okay cheers ill take that into mind. But ill keep everything that eveyones said into account for something in the future. Thankyou everyone for the advice! If anyone has anymore info on what they dud in their test that would also help me out quite a bit.
Sounds silly, but on mine I was told after to treat the Annie cpr doll as a person eg talk to it as youāre doing cpr and DRABC.
The assessment isnāt too bad though so try not to stress out - itās much easier when your gloves arenāt full of sweat.
When approaching any scene, look around you, is there a liquid on the floor, an electrical cable, are they behind a door in a laboratory as the room maybe contaminated by a noxious substance and remember to look upwards as well.
If the victim has had an electric shock provided they are not in contact with the electrical source and remember water conducts electricity (if necessary push them to safety with something wooden if you cannot disconnect by switching off the power)
Cardiac arrest is a state where the heart is incapable of pumping from whatever source of injury etc. In a basic situation they are treated the same way cardiac compressions at 100 to 120 bpm or a ratio of 30:2, if necessary sing out loud the tune staying alive from Saturday Night fever or Nellie the elephant.
Rescue breaths if there are facial injuries or burns around the mouth Ill advised, plus rescue breaths are not mandatory.
Quite correct to talk to the victim as hearing is usually the last sense to be lost and the first to be regained.
Iāve come across more than one who have related what has happened during their cardiac arrest.
Even when you wear gloves normally they become full of sweat.
When I was a cadet, we had a scenario of an unresponsive casualty lying in a dark room (no lights)ā¦
Part of the hazard we were meant to have spotted was that it was an electrocution - the lights had gone off because the breakers were triggeredā¦
If the breakers have tripped then thereās no hazard 
Depends how much you trust your lowest bidding RFCA contractorā¦ But we digress!
The implied risk was explained as - in the event of no lights, the first assumption was a power cut - but could have also been caused by someone being electrocutedā¦
If someone had gone to the consumer board and simply reset the breaker, whatever had caused the shock could reoccur.
The instructor in question often came up with āincredibleā scenariosā¦
Is that āincredibleā that made you think, or you thought that they were unlikely. I have come across a variation of the electrocution scenario during an ALS course.
āIncredibleā - based on these were deeply thought out scenarios and could last the majority of an entire parade evening.
The instructor would always try to make the scenarios appropriate to the age of the participants - so, younger, more junior cadets would get simpler scenarios, compared with older, staff cadetsā¦
It made for an excited group of cadets!
Sounds good. I remember the best session I had as a cadet was an unexpected first aid session which took the whole parade.
The seniors were allegedly doing field craft on the school field and we were meant to be taking our radio test.
The 6 form theatre studies crew came out and did fantastic injury makeup on the seniors and then the staff set off a load of flash bangs and smoke grenades. Led to a very realistic battlefield first aid scenario. Especially as none of us were expecting it.
ā¦different days!
That sounds amazing!What a story to tell