EMERGENCY CARE – Important First Aid
Posted in Our Best Advice
Emergency Preparedness
Todays TIPS are for Emergency Care and First Aid, often ignored but imperative to know. From blackouts to big storms, the items you need to get through a worst-case scenario may already be in your home — just not stored in one place. So make sure all of the items we cover are in one area of the house closest to the front door. The key aims of First Aid can be summarized in these points:
- Preserve Life – The overriding aim of all medical care including First Air, is to save lives.
- Prevent Further Harm – also called ‘prevent the condition from worsening’. This covers external factors too, such as moving the patient away from any possible further cause of harm, applying first aid techniques to prevent worsening the condition– like applying pressure to stop bleeding from becoming dangerous.
- Promote Recovery – First Aid also involves trying to start the recovery process from illness or injury, and in some cases might involve completing a treatment such as applying a plaster to a small wound, setting a bone, or in extreme measures (like a Katrina situation) suturing a wound, which may be learned at local hospitals emergency classes.
First Air Sign
Everyone in the house should know where the Emergency Care Bag and water/food, is located, including people working in the house. If you work in a residence as your job, make sure to learn where these items are kept. If there is no emergency preparedness, talk to your employer and create one. Do not put this off. Work out also what the family will do in the event of an emergency to have everyone working as a team. There isn’t much time given to respond in emergency events, so be prepared to be prepared (as my husband Roger terms it). Since every second counts in an emergency, have the following basics in a portable container to leave the area quickly in the event of evacuation, and perhaps another in the area of the house where you’ll seek shelter if unable to leave:
- One -Two weeks worth of food and water for each member of the family and some extra for a guest who might be in your home, and any staff members working in your residence.
- A FIRST AID KIT that is large enough to include: iodine, gauze, large-small bandaids, insecticide, antibacterial spray, antibiotic, wound healing medicine, ace bandage, sterile cotton, Q-Tips, aspirin (or alternative you prefer).
- To this KIT add: hot and cold packs (the ones you crunch to activate) bone setting items, wound suturing items, Eco Harvested Tea Tree Oil (the Aussies swear by this for first aid), organic Lavender Essential Oil (soothing, calming), Bach Flowers Rescue Remedy tincture and cream covers so many uses including bringing someone out of shock, good for animals, and the cream for burns, sprains, bruises, the extract drops on the tongue for shock and acute symptoms (I carry Rescue Remedy in my purse at all times), safety pins, needle and thread, magnifying glass, tweezers, crazy glue, Colloidal Silver (an age old remedy you can browse online), water protection tablets (to purify water making it drinkable), anything else you like in your first aid kit.
- ADDITIONAL ITEMS -Â Include battery-powered or hand-crank flashlights and radio (I prefer ham radio that includes a regular radio incase of power outages), extra batteries, trash bags, duct tape (for sheltering-in-place; see ready.gov for details), regional maps, personal sanitation or specific family needs, extra towels, kleenex and handkerchiefs, pet supplies, space blankets for each family member (those aluminum looking ones), two blue tarps, one large enough for everyone to lay upon and the second as overhead shelter, a quick to assemble tent, rope, string, 2 large match boxes, and medical masks to protect against air-quality problems and infections.
tongue blocking airways -- In case of tongue fallen backwards, blocking the airway, it is necessary to hyperextend the head and pull up the chin, so that the tongue lifts and clears the airway.
As we witnessed during the Katrina debacle, people were cut off for weeks before they could be assisted. Tragically, some did not make it. Our TIPS page does not shy away from addressing emergency preparedness when all of us need to know what it takes to be prepared.
First aid training also involves the prevention of initial injury and responder safety, and the treatment phases. The Good Samaritan Law protects citizens from legal action when helping someone who appears to be needing first aid, so don’t be afraid to try even if it is only to call 911 to report someone you see is hurt or incapacitated. It could save lives.
Emergency CPR
Certain skills are considered essential to the provision of first aid. To remember what they are the memnonic ABCD’s is used. The first three stand for Airway, Breathing, and Circulation, which is the same memnonic (a word, symbol, or image trigger to help you remember) used by emergency health professionals. Attention must be first brought to the airway passage to ensure it is clear. Choking, is a life threatening emergency, so do learn the Heimlich Maneuver to address it. Circulation is now usually carried out for patients who are not breathing using mouth to mouth CPR, and going straight to the chest to apply chest compression strokes. Do inquire with your Fire Department or Hospital in your area to learn CPR and get your certification. You’ll be glad and confident to have this knowledge, which I believe each of us should be taught in school as standard issue part of the curriculum. Some organizations include D for deadly bleeding or defilibration (which is why I added D to the standard ABC’s) while others consider it part of the Circulation step. Other organizations teach the 3B’s, which stands for Breathing, Bleeding, and Bones. Learning how to set a bone is also imperative to deal with emergency situations. FINAL TIP:Â Support your local Fire Department and Red Cross, and take their emergency preparedness classes.
LEARN FIRST AID PROCEDURES AND CPR
Our Best Advice has been brought to you bywww.ISAstaffing.com . Visit often for other great ideas, use our Tell A Friendfeatured link to this blog, or our Domestic Staffing website link to pass our TIPS and our renowned services. THANKS!