The last three days have seen Allan Shaw deliver a three-day First Aid at Work Course at Wirral Metropolitan College. This course brought back many happy memories for Allan, who spent 11 years of his teaching career working at the college from 1993 to 2004. There, he set up the first public services course in the country and also instigated the setting up of the outdoor sports course, both of which are still running today.
Allan was invited to run the course over three days at the 12 Quays campus, where he trained construction, health and social care, and support staff from the college.
The course covered all of the essentials of the Health & Safety Executive recommended course, and this included the following activities:
- Medication
- Breaks and Strains
- CPR and Defibrillation
- Recovery position
- Casualty evaluation
- Bandaging
- Dealing with large bleeds
- Reporting of incidents
- Contents of first aid kits.
He also ensured that the staff had plenty of opportunities to discuss medical issues such as asthma, epilepsy, diabetes, hypothermia, hyperthermia, meningitis, etc.
On the last day, the staff had the chance to put all their learning into practice with several scenarios which were run outside the building. These included dealing with a drunken unconscious casualty, anaphylaxis, a car crash with an injured motorcyclist, a heart attack, an asthmatic emergency, various broken limbs and bleeding injuries.
The evaluation forms included comments such as:
Fantastic course, Allan is amazing, never realised first aid was so interesting. Will highly recommend a great 3 days.
