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5 Basic First Aid Skills Everyone Should Learn

Rick PPE-SEO • Jun 01, 2021

If you learn some basic first aid skills, you can reduce the severity of injuries. Here are some basic first aid skills everyone should learn.

First aid kit, tablets, tweezers, and scissors on the table

When someone sustains injuries at the workplace, every minute of their life becomes critical. The more time it takes for the medical aid to arrive, the more serious their injury or condition becomes.

Fortunately, several basic first aid skills come in handy during such emergencies. These skills can help you minimize the severity of the injury and can even save lives! In this blog, we've compiled some basic first aid skills everyone should learn.

1. Perform CPR

The easiest and most significant first aid skill that everyone should learn is CPR. CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In emergencies where a person is unable to breathe, performing CPR can save a life!

It provides air ventilation that supports blood circulation, brain functioning, and the breathing process in a body. Anyone can learn CPR quickly.

2. Carrying out the Heimlich maneuver

If someone experiences a choke or heart attack, carrying a Heimlich maneuver can clear their airways to sustain their vital body processes and prevent brain collapse. Generally, you’ll have to perform a Heimlich maneuver within five minutes of the choke, or the airways will get blocked, and the person will suffer brain damage.

3. Setting a Splint

Setting a splint becomes mandatory when someone sustains a bone injury, and you’re far away from professional medical help. Bone injuries need to be supported by something urgently, or they become worse and more painful. You can set a splint using a bandage, aluminium stick, or other household items if you're out on an adventure or a distant place like up the mountains.

A person tying a bandage on another person’s hand

4. Stop the Bleeding

When you see someone bleeding excessively, it’s crucial to stop it at your earliest. If you don’t, blood loss will further worsen the person’s health.

Bleeding occurs either through a ruptured artery or a vein. If it isn’t controlled, the person will bleed out within fifteen minutes. Thus, it also becomes a matter of saving a life.

You can stop the bleeding by learning to tie a tourniquet, which is simple and quite helpful in such emergencies.

5. Treating Burn Injuries

Burn injuries also require prompt first aid if medical help isn’t near. Different burn injuries require different treatments.

First-degree burn injuries are easily treatable by covering them with loose gauze and applying some topical remedies. Second-degree burns will result in swollen and blistered skin. It’s recommended to wash it with cold water and then treating it like first-degree burns. Finally, third-degree burn injuries are the most severe and require a professional doctor's help to heal.

Thus, first aid enhances workplace safety and boosts the employee’s confidence in the working environment. If you’re interested in getting your employees first aid certified, you’ve come to the right place.

At Premier Proactive Education (P.P.E.), we offer health and safety training courses, including working at heights course, PPE safety training, fall protection courses, aerial lift training course, first aid courses in Newmarket and other courses.

To enroll in the training courses, get in touch with us at 905-767-SAFE (7233) or info@ppesafetyservices.ca.