Module 8: First Aid (FIA 103) Comprehensive Study Notes

First aid worked as a common unit for every medical course, thirty hours and three credits, in two units: the concepts and principles of first aid over four theory hours, and the management of various emergency conditions over twelve theory and fourteen practical hours. The first unit covers the introduction to first aid and its aims, its principles, the responsibilities of a first aider and the eight qualities that make one effective, the features and contents of a first aid kit with what each item is there for, the scope of first aid, and incident management through the AMEGA sequence of assessing the scene, making it safe, getting help, giving emergency aid and staying with the casualty. The second unit works through casualty management and the emergency process including the primary survey and when compressions begin without waiting for the full DRABC sequence, cardiopulmonary resuscitation in adults with its indications and technique, the recovery position, respiratory emergencies and choking, circulatory emergencies, medical emergencies from asthma, epilepsy and diabetic crisis to meningitis with its non-blanching rash, stroke and the thunderclap headache, poisoning, bites and stings, emergency childbirth with newborn resuscitation, body injuries including wounds, bleeding, fractures, dislocations, sprains and amputations, burns and scalds, and the extremes of temperature with heat stroke above forty degrees, then wounds and wound management, bandaging and dressings, lifting, moving, carrying and transporting a casualty, general casualty management, and a quick reference summary.