Training
All Community First Responders are trained by their respective ambulances services, ours being the East of England Ambulance Service. The training currently comprises of a weekend at the Training Department at Ambulance Headquarters in Chelmsford covering both theory and practical work and concludes with an examination which requires a high pass mark on a separate day. Trainees are provided with comprehensive course notes for their future reference.Further to the details below (taken from the training manual) we meet weekly for continuation training at the St. John Hall in Manningtree performing various scenario's and/or refresher training to ensure knowledge and high skills levels are maintained. We are fortunate to have two paramedics who instruct and supervise our training together with the experience of some members who volunteer with the St John Ambulance.
The training course covers:
- Introduction to Community First Responders
- Introduction
- Recruitment
- Training and Skills
- Incidents that First Responders attend
- Accountability and responsibility
- Confidentiality
- Equipment
- Basic Life Support
- Use of an automated external defibrillator
- Oropharyngeal airways
- Suction
- Recovery position
- Oxygen Therapy
- Management of Medical Conditions
- Patient assessment
- Choking patient
- Chest pains
- Breathing difficulties
- Asthma
- Hyperventilation
- Reassuring a conscious patient
- Control of bleeding
- Fitting patient
- Allergies
- Diabetic emergencies
- Stroke patient
- Responder Safety and Risk Assessment
- Keeping yourself safe
- Travelling to and from an incident
- Parking
- Safe driving
- Communications
- Incident report forms
- Adverse incident reporting
- Critical incident debriefing
- Infection control
