First aid courses

doctor evil

Heya,

Does anyone know where in the south of Dublin first aid courses are being held?. Its something I`ve been meaning to do for a while. Does anyone have any experience of them, are they good?.

Ruu_Old

Maybe your local fitness club or gym, they might be able to help you out.

LadyJ

Red Cross headquarters are in Merrion Square I think.

I did one on the North side in October.
It was just a two day crash course but we got a 3 year cert.

Twas very interesting and is something everyone should do imo.

robinph

St John Ambulance aka Order of Malta in Ireland

BoozyBabe

Think I've done 3 now.
The last being a good few years ago now, & tbh:- I don't think I've remembered one thing!!!!

I like to think that in an emergency, the training would come back to me, but honestly, I don't think it would.

Time for a refresher course I think.

I actually thnk this should be a compulsory activity at school / college, repeated every few years, even at primary school.

It's SO important that everyone has a bit of 1st aid knowledge, we all hope we'll never need it, but you just don't know when you will.

Please do go take a course & I think I'll do the same

mdebets

Have a look at the Red Cross or give the St. John's Ambulance a ring at 01-668 8077 (I couldn't find a web page for them).

And robinph, Order of Malta and St. John's Ambulance are not the same organisation.

Heyes

Doctor Evil, pm me what courses you want to do exactly

DonkeyRhubarb

Reply to RobinPH.

I work with St Johns and Order of Malta from time to time with the fire brigade. There is no aka. They are separate organisations. As far as I know, you generally have to join for them to train you in first aid.

If you do, stick with it, as you can progress through ranks and improve your qualifications up to First Responder and further.

From my personal experience, St. Johns is a more professional organisation.

Edit:

Have to agree with boozy babe that we should all ahve at least some experience. I train with the Auxiliary Fire Service once a week and it's damn lucky. You wouldnt believe the amount of road traffic accidents I just happen to walk into. It's uncanny!! Two in the past week alone just going about my daily business.

Even if you are not qualified enough to make an informed decision on what course of action to take, it also helps if you can take control of the situation and give each person a role.

What have ya got to lose?

The Real B-man

DonkeyRhubarb wrote:

Reply to RobinPH.

I work with St Johns and Order of Malta from time to time with the fire brigade. There is no aka. They are separate organisations. As far as I know, you generally have to join for them to train you in first aid.

If you do, stick with it, as you can progress through ranks and improve your qualifications up to First Responder and further.

From my personal experience, St. Johns is a more professional organisation.

Edit:

Have to agree with boozy babe that we should all ahve at least some experience. I train with the Auxiliary Fire Service once a week and it's damn lucky. You wouldnt believe the amount of road traffic accidents I just happen to walk into. It's uncanny!! Two in the past week alone just going about my daily business.

Even if you are not qualified enough to make an informed decision on what course of action to take, it also helps if you can take control of the situation and give each person a role.

What have ya got to lose?

**Cough** is this coming from a sja member :rolleyes: im omac and i disagree totally there are both equally good organisations in the same boat at the end of the day the order being the largest and most active in ireland and the first to introduce many changes in its training Aed's, first responders & Medical bike units. aswell as changes to its public first aid courses

We could be here all night discussing this the fact is you get arseholes in every organisation i could write a book!

doctor evil

Thank you everyone. I`ll be looking into both. The Red Cross website seems quite good, I may consider joining. Is anyone else a member of either?.

N_Raid

I know there is a public first aid course being run by St. John in september (know this cos I'm a member). Give headquarters a ring for details, the number is above in one of the posts. You dont have to join as has been suggested might be the case, it is a public first aid course and anyone who decides they want to join at the end is more than welcome. Just so you know, in the first aid courses, there are 2 parts. A theory part which is always thought by a qualified doctor. Then a practical part which is taught by members of the brigade who have qualified as instructors and demonstrators. Its a 10 week course with. 9 weeks of learning and an exam on week 10. I don't know how the courses are run by the other organisations like the red cross and the order of malta but I would expect that they are at least of the same standard. Look around and get information and see if you can find anyone who has done a course with one of them before and decide which of them you want to learn with.

And I would agree, it is a very valuable skill, even if you dont come across big accidents every day at least you have the peace of mind that if anything ever happened to family or friends or anything you would have at least a basic level of knowledge to be able to help. And it looks good on a CV too.

P.S. You posted just as i was typing. If you want any info on anything about St. John or anything PM me. As The Real B-man said you get good and bad in every organisation and I can tell you about St. John and about what goes on etc. but make sure you find out about all the organisations cos I can only talk from personal experience and having had no experience of training with any of the other organisations i can't comment on their standards, good or bad.

robinph

mdebets wrote:

And robinph, Order of Malta and St. John's Ambulance are not the same organisation.

Same badge (different colours), doing the same job, both linked to Malta so easy to get confused I guess, and as I've seen nothing of the Order of Malta in the UK and nothing of St John Ambulance in Ireland * I'd thought it was just a case of renaming so as not to be too obviously associated with the English version.


*I did just find one single web page with their address on after a bit of digging, but theres no mention of Ireland on the main SJA site.

N_Raid

It depends on where you look. SJAB do Croke park, lansdowne road and the RDS as our main duties. Not too sure where the order of malta do. The only one I know for sure is the Point cos I've seen them there a few times when I've gone to stuff.

The badges are very similar, with the 8 pointed cross being the main feature. They are so similar because the two organisations started out as one. It's been a while since I studied the history of the order but I think it was in the 1300s that there was a split, the main order having started out as a hostel in Jerusalem in the 7th century.

As for the website, yeah you won't find an official St. john website. It's supposed to be on the way or in the works or whatever but no sign of it yet. There are a couple that were set up by divisions but nothing official.

bluedolphin

doctor evil wrote:

Thank you everyone. I`ll be looking into both. The Red Cross website seems quite good, I may consider joining. Is anyone else a member of either?.

MY god! I had such a long post typed out and the feckin operation timed out when I pressed submit and I lost the whole thing But jsut cos you asked so nicely I'll shorten it down:

I'm a member of the Red Cross since I joined as a cadet at the age of 14 (a grand old Senior member now at 20...). I've progressed from completing a basic first aid (BFA) course to doing my intermediate, safe lifting techniques, radio operators, ambulance training and completed my First Responder course just over a year ago. I train with the Limerick city branch so my response may be more specific to the practices of that branch, rather than Dublin. However, all in all, it is pretty much the same; there may be a few slight differences, but nothing that would be of much consequence.

You have two options to you:
1. sign up for a public BFA course. This can take place over two ways, either an intense weekend course or one night (1.5-2hrs) a week over a period of approx 12 weeks. At the end of either, you will be examined in both your practical and theoretical knowledge (although due to the nature of the skill, the practical side usually has a greater weighting) and upon successfully passing the exam you will be issued with a cert qualifying you in BFA for 3 years.

Alternatively...
2. you can become a member of the Red Cross. This usually takes place after you have completed a public BFA course, and you express an interest in furthering your first aid knowledge. As a member you are entitled to receive further training in intermediate first aid, safe lifting, radios, ambulances, etc., etc., etc.,....there are inumerous variety of courses to do after the Basic. Also as a member it would be expected that you would become more involved within your branch - going on 'duties' (i.e. providing first aid cover at local events for eg horse racing, triathlons...it could be anything!), perhaps assisting in unit training, fundraising, looking after equipment etc. In return, you are not expected to pay fees for your first aid training. This would be the usual scenario. You could also expect to meet a number of like minded people who have an interest in something that requires them to voluntarily give up their time to pursue a new skill while also helping others. It's important to note that as a voluntary org., the people who train you are not being paid, they are there because it's their hobby. Similarly, you are there not for financial gain, but because you want to be there. I think this greatly adds to the morale and spirit of the people who are members - certainly those I've met.

Also as a member, it may be possible to enter Red Cross first aid competitions. Every year, teams from different areas congregate to compete and show off their first aid skills. Mock real-life scenarios (e.g. car crash) are presented to teams of up to 6 members who then must assess the situation and treat the injuries in a specific period of time. They are marked on their handling skills, patient manner as well as treatment skills among other areas. The winners of this national competition represent Ireland at a European level: this year Limerick came 2nd in Europe!

If you choose to be a member you would also be continuously practicing and engaging in first aid training, this would mean your skills are kept up to scratch and you would be always in a state of improvement.

I really cant stress how inmportant a BFA course would be...even something simple like a nose bleed, many people would suggest tilting the head backwards: wrong. Tilt forwards and pinch the soft part of the nose softly. But dramatic situations such as car crashes...how many times have you witnessed an accident and the best you could do was dial 999/112? while this is satisfactory, the person who banged his head and fell unconscious may now have stopped breathing due to loss of control of his tongue which blocked his airway...the woman knocked down who was moved to the side of the road may now be permanently paralysed due to an unknown spinal injury...wouldn't you have liked to have helped one of them?

I dont know any contacts directly in south dublin, but if you're interested PM me and I could certainly get a name/contact no. for you in that area from the secretary in the Limerick office....or if you ring HQ on 676 5135 they'd be able to put you in the right direction.

Do a first aid course, save a life....G'wan, you know you want to!

*presentation over*:o

spurious

Most of the VEC schools that run night classes run a 10 week First Aid course.

robinph

N_Raid wrote:

It depends on where you look. SJAB do Croke park, lansdowne road and the RDS as our main duties. Not too sure where the order of malta do. The only one I know for sure is the Point cos I've seen them there a few times when I've gone to stuff.

I did use to be in SJA myself many, many, many years ago and we used to cover a motor bike racing track every other week or so, which also had some rounds of touring cars as well which was good fun watching from the track side. I guess I must have just been looking in the wrong directions though to have missed seeing them at Croke Park etc.

mdebets

I have done courses with St, John's and the Red Cross in Dublin and was a member of St. John's and are a member of the Red Cross at the moment (even so I don't do anything due to having no time).
I found the Red Cross course better, because it was a much smaller course (10 or 12 people), while the St. John's one filled a hall in their headquarters.
They are all following more or less the same curriculum, so it's just a matter of personal preferences.

St. Johns and the Order of Malta, or better the Knights Orders which are behind them, where one order up to the Reformation, when they split into St. John's (Protestant) and Order of Malta (Catholic).

Collie D

DonkeyRhubarb wrote:

You wouldnt believe the amount of road traffic accidents I just happen to walk into. It's uncanny!! Two in the past week alone just going about my daily business.

Ever thought that you might be an unlucky omen or something?

To OP, most big companies will have a health and safety committee type thing. Ask about it and you'll get free training and a couple of days off work ;o)

Have done two with Red Cross, quite good, haven't had to anything more than apply a couple of plasters, thankfully

doctor evil

Thank you Bluedolphim, I`m going to ring them tomorrow to get more info.

Would it be too much info to do it over one weekend or would it be better to do it over a few weeks?, depending on dates of course.

tony 2 tone

Sweet, was just looking into re-doing a course, but didn't know where.
Donkey Rhubarb, whats the craic with the Aux Fire Service?

DonkeyRhubarb

To: Tony 2 Tone.

The Auxiliary Fire Service is a voluntary service run by the civil defence that is a back up the the full time fire brigade.

The only advantage (in my mind) that we have over other organisations is that we do firemanship as well as medic situations.

Our medic experience tends to focus more on road traffis accidents, trauma and spinal injuries. This is on top of cardiac arrest and the rest of the stuff you will do.

When I joined, all you had to do was drop down to your local AFS and say Id like to join and you were more or less in, but all Civil Defence Services require the person to go through a three week course before you can join any given part of the Civil Defence.

I will tell you however, the AFS is the best thing I have ever done. EVER. I have gained more experience and changed my whole outlook on life and my expectations since I joined.

Im looking forward to hopefully working for DFB full time in the not too distant future:)

If you have any more specific questions, please post here or feel free to PM me if your considering joining. Like I said, it's the best thing Ive ever done.

bluedolphin

doctor evil wrote:

Thank you Bluedolphim, I`m going to ring them tomorrow to get more info.

Would it be too much info to do it over one weekend or would it be better to do it over a few weeks?, depending on dates of course.

To be honest it's personal preference, really. A weekend crash course would suit people who don't have much time, whereas the weekly course would be more suited to people with mroe time, sort of looking to take up a hobby as there's obviously a greater social side to a weekly training session.

The weekend course is intensive - it would be two full days and possibly the Friday evening, depending on the instructor. There is a lot to be covered both in theory and in practice. Imho, a weekend course is more orientated towards a company staff who are required to do first aid, need it fast, and need it just for regulations. The weekly training would be more spread out, and more time would be given to everything. Also, you'd only touch on one/two aspects every week so you would be able to go more in-depth into the theory and practical sides.

Also, by spreading it out over a number of weeks, your mind would assimilate more inforamation as it was given the time to actually absorb what's being taught - over a weekend, everything is being pumped into you. Saying that however, the weekend course is still perfectly legitimate and all, but as you asked for my opinion, if you had the time and commitment, the weekly option would be preferable, imho (of course)

From my experience in Limerick, when these courses are run depends on numbers interested...it's not cost worthy to run a weekend/weekly course for 2 people. However, courses usually begin in September, when kids are back in school and people can settle into a routine again. In Limerick things are pretty quiet training-wise, as we concentrate on duties. I can't tell if this would be the same for Dublin, as maybe it's a busier district, but I'd imagine things would quieten down, due to the fact that members would be taking holidays/extra duties..therefore there wouldn't be the resources to run courses. But get in touch and they'd be able to give you more info regarding when courses are starting.