first aid day 1

i was up at Hampden football ground today for the first day of my sports injuries first aid.

i got lost getting there, but then that's why i always leave an extra half hour early, coz i can pretty much guarantee you i'll get lost at some point in any new trip (despite having a satnav! lol)

i dunno what i was expecting, but the place is stunning! i mean 'me feeling totally out of place by how posh and expensive looking the whole place is' stunning!

we were up on the 6th floor, very posh meeting rooms and offices.

there's only 10 of us on the course, wide range of professions, some like me needing it for insurance purposes, others just there to gain knowledge for their own benefit.

we started with some theory and some group work - then onto the practical stuff of CPR. i was pretty confident in my CPR skills but just couldn't get the chest to inflate, neither could my partner - we're both quite worried at this point that we just can't get it, assessor then came along and tried and also couldn't get it to inflate- so took the whole thing apart and put it back together again and it worked a treat, phew! faith in my abilities was restored! lol

we then moved on to "head to toe" assessment -which basically entails getting very familiar with someone you only met 2 hours previously- this course certainly isn't for people who are shy about touching or being touched!! have to say it didn't bother me in the slightest, i can put my professional head on and just get on with it, but for others... they were a bit more hesitant and i can totally understand why.

we then did recovery position - that's something that's changed slightly since i last did it, we also did recovery position for someone with a spinal injury, which is a task and a half and something which is really hard to get right.

choking was next, got to wear a funky vest and give (and recieve!) back slaps and abdominal thrusts.

wounds was good fun - lots of gory pictures - and we got to play about with bandages (cue the jokes about being tied up!) - it was really interesting to learn the new techniques and how to improvise when you are limited to a first aid kit.

it was also really interesting to learn what you can and can't do as a first aider, some of it is completely backwards... but then that's UK legislation in general really.. there's always that one rule where you think "why?!"

obviously there was more to the day than this, a lot of theory, about 20 pages of notes taken, but those were the highlights.

looking forward to tomorrow, i think we're gonna cover breaks and soft tissue damage - we're also getting formally assessed in CPR and recovery position.... we do get assessed in all the other aspects, but those are informal and take place while we're doing the practicals, as long as your technique isn't horribly wrong you pass, whereas with CPR and recovery position there's a bit more at stake and so they want to make sure you can achieve a certain level independantly before passing you.

have to say I am really glad i chose to go on this course now, i have really really enjoyed it so far and already feel loads more confident about being able to cope should anything go wrong in a class.

bring on tomorrow!!