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First Aid

First Aid At Work: Your Questions Answered

By October 23, 2020December 12th, 2023No Comments

What is first aid and how can it be performed at work?

Do understand the importance of first aid at work? It is essential and a legal requirement. However, let’s explain what first aid is.

It is the first help somebody will have when taken ill or injured whilst at work. Therefore, a company has a legal duty to ensure the safety of its employees and others who may be affected by their work. This extends to non-employees such as visitors and contractors.

In an ideal world, all risk assessments and training will be adhered to, and there will not be any accidents at all. Then we all woke up from such a wonderful dream and came back to reality.

The reality is, even the safest of environments have accidents. Not just that, a risk assessment can not tell whether a person will have a heart attack or a seizure, but a business needs to prepare itself in case that happens by having sufficiently qualified first aiders.

What is a first aider?

To be classed as a first aider you must have attended a 3 day First Aid at Work course (FAW), this course can be provided as long as the course is accepted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). ALTTA Group Limited achieve this by using Protrainings.UK as their governing body.

It is a major myth that only St Johns and the Red Cross can deliver first aid training to workers. In fact, in our experience, we have found that not only are we significantly more cost-effective than people who have been trained by those organisations, they also prefer to be trained by ALTTA Group Limited. Students often say that the training was more realistic and more enjoyable. Furthermore, they also say they prefer the aftercare of having their own online dashboard where they can gain access to recourses for up to 3 years.

If you do not need to complete the 3 day FAW course, then you can complete the 1 day course. This is known as an Emergency First Aid at Work course (EFAW). An EFAW trained staff member would typically be required in low-risk environments or used to help the first aiders who have completed the 3 day FAW course in the high-risk environments.

How many first aiders are required, and do I need a FAW or EFAW?

There is not really a simple answer as it depends on the risk assessment of a business and whether they consider the company to be high or low risk. As a rule, a high-risk category business would be:

  • Food processing
  • Working with dangerous machinery
  • Construction
  • Manufacturing
  • Chemicals
  • Engineering

A low risk may be considered as:

  • Libraries
  • Offices
  • Shops

Please note these are not exhaustive lists and as mentioned it very much depends on the risk assessment of the business.  

The number of employees you have will make a difference to what first aid cover you require. That said one thing that will never change is that you will require enough trained employees to cover first aid duties but also to cover sickness, holidays and other absences of qualified first aiders. We are in strange times with covid-19 as I write this. I wonder how many businesses are finding themselves short of first aiders due to home working and isolation periods? If you are unsure of how to conduct a risk assessment or how many first aiders you require then Altta Group Limited can conduct the risk assessment and assess your training requirements for you.

Contents of 1 Day EFAW course

First Aid at Work Regulations and Rules
Fears of First Aid
Barriers
Initial Assessment
Unconscious Breathing and Recovery Position
Cardiac Problems
The Heart, Sudden Cardiac Arrest, Heart Attacks and CPR
One Rescuer CPR
Chest Only Compressions
CPR Handover to a Second Rescuer
Other Primary Care First Aid Problems
Adult Choking, Conscious and Unconscious
Serious Bleeding Management and Wounds
Shock
Spinal Injury Management
Burns and Scalds
Anaphylactic Shock and Allergies
Seizures and Epilepsy

What do you gain from your training?

Let us forget certification and all things work for one second, what you gain from these courses is the knowledge to help family, friends, colleagues and others who may need your assistance. This course will give you confidence that you can help those who need it should the situation arrive. YOU REALLY COULD BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH.

On a working note, you will receive the confidence to care for those who need it in the working environment. You will also hold a level 3 RQF (Regulated Qualification Framework) qualification. You can also use this to prove your CPD (Continuing Professional Development). This course is recognised throughout the UK, but the most essential bit, as mentioned, is the confidence and skills that you gain from completing the course with confident, experienced and hands-on instructors. One of the problems with first aid training is the way it is taught; it is false and makes it seem like everyone is going to fall in the same way or have the same cuts. We, of course, will teach what the book says, but real-life situations must be discussed as well.

What technology does Altta use?

We have invested in resuscitation dolls that will give feedback via an app on compression rates and depths. Once covid is under control, and we can do the breaths, it will also give feedback on how the breath was delivered. Below is a video of some candidates working on their CPR technique; this is with no help; they could not see the app, the clicker was switched off on the doll, making it more realistic. They had been trained before this go and achieved scores of around 88%. The instructor was able to feedback on where they needed to improve and then recorded this. The video is only 1 minute long for recording purposes only.
You can see how the depths and rates change, but the overall score is as near to perfect as possible. The photo was of perfection (just my luck I was not recording when this happened). Since using this technology, we have seen a massive surge in confidence when carrying out CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation).

So why are Altta so different from the other providers?

Well, that is an easy one to answer. Our professionalism from the start of your learning journey until you pass will not be rivalled. At Altta Group Limited, we pride ourselves on our dedication to our customers. We have been doing this for a long time as individuals and over 7 years as a company at the time of writing. We know what works; we know how to work with you, and we understand how to deliver training to a range of different ability candidates.

If you are a follower of our blogs or our business in general, you will know that we do not teach anything that we have not had real-life experience on, you will also know our training ethos is not to show you how clever we are by using long posh words. Fundamentally, we believe nothing will be taught if it is not understood. That is why our training is kept as simple as possible and not made unnecessary hard by medical jargon. After all, we are not training to be paramedics or doctors. I can hear you saying “well all business’s will say this…………” don’t take our word for it look at our reviews from previous customers – https://www.procourses.co.uk/facilitators/3118-altta-group-limited-colin-frost-peterborough

Other courses we offer

We do not just offer the courses listed above, but also the 2 day requalification course, 12-hour paediatric course that is OFSTED recognised/approved. Basic Life Support, Defibrillator and much more. We are also able to tailor a training course to your needs.

If you have made it to the bottom of the page, then well done and thank you. Please don’t hold back on the training you require; we could have gone on and on and on about legal requirements etc. But you know this already. What we wanted to do was show the benefits of becoming a first aider and why you should train with Altta Group Limited. You really will not regret choosing us as your provider.