FIRST AID First aid for the soul


The Red Cross’s first aid programme – Life. Live it. –


has had unexpected social and emotional benefits for students. Karen Sullivan investigates


S


aving a life is probably the most humbling and rewarding experience that we can achieve as human beings, and perhaps the most amazing gift we can offer. it goes without saying that learning first aid can save lives, and that the vital skills involved can improve


the chances of survival for victims of virtually any type of accident, illness or injury. However, the very act of learning first aid can have some important implications for the learners, and that’s just one reason why first aid should have a mandatory place on curricula across the UK. The British Red Cross is determined to create a new


generation of live-savers, and has, over the past few years, undertaken an exciting programme known as “Life. Live it.”. it has been created for both primary and secondary


schools and targeted to adapt to various requirements of the PSHE and key stage agendas. The teaching resources are both flexible and designed for teachers with no previous first aid experience. The Life. Live it. first aid education kit for ages 11


to 16 was launched in 2007, and is now used to teach around 100,000 young people each year. a new, free online Life. Live it. resource has recently been launched for primary school children.


More than saving lives


Many local authorities across the UK are supporting this programme, recognising the close link that first aid has to social and emotional aspects of learning. The resources deal with many of these aspects through its topics, questioning, group work and practical activities. Jane Cooper, of the British Red Cross, said: “The


very act of teaching first aid to young people nurtures many emotional aspects such as the importance of their relationships with each other and how they feel when someone they love is in danger or hurt. First aid is a life-skill that teaches learners how to empathise with vulnerable people.” She added: ‘The Life. Live it. lessons also ask


young people to consider how they would manage their feelings to support others and themselves; for example, how to treat a person who had cut themselves badly and was losing so much blood it made their friend feel sick.” The programme has been prepared to focus on


aspects of care that go beyond simply memorising the skills necessary to offer assistance to someone who has been injured. For example, Making First Aid Relevant – the first session in the kit for secondary schools – gives opportunities for students to consider the sort of information and attitude required to make decisions, such as whether to help a stranger who appears to be injured or ill in a park or whether to help someone who is bleeding in case they are Hiv positive. This session also confronts young people with


questions on helping people of different ethnicities, which provide scope for exploring diversity and prejudice. Ms Cooper continued: “giving first aid is a


humanitarian act and an expression of what it means to care for friends and strangers alike. By teaching young people first aid we are giving them a sense what life is and how easily it can be taken away. They learn to value life and to value their relationships. in the classroom this can be acted out in practical activities such as putting on a bandage, which develop relationships alongside appropriate communication skills.” The importance of this message cannot be


underestimated. We have a generation of youths who far too freely threaten and take the lives of others through violence – knife and gun crime, and even simply thuggery that has robbed over 100 young men and women of their lives in the past few years. These bewildering statistics have provoked


widespread outrage, but also a willingness to admit that we are not, somehow, reaching these youngsters and teaching them the value of life. in a rather paradoxical way, teaching first aid – how to save a life – can have


SecEd • June 16 2011


also develops their team-working skills. it can provide occasions for problem-solving and gives pupils the opportunity to gain confidence that they can recover from setbacks. in addition it can develop students’ understanding of the effects of alcohol and drugs and increase their respect for life and community.” There were two elements to the first aid programme


at Churchfields. Form tutors delivered an hour-long lesson Making First Aid Relevant session to introduce first aid and decision-making activities around the students’ responsibilities to themselves and those around them. after this, peer educators gave sessions on the more


practical parts of first aid teaching, such as how to put someone into the recovery position, treating bleeding, and bandaging. The school told me: “The confidence of the staff


varied at the start but afterwards the majority were very pleased with the session. One teacher with recent experience of using his first aid skills was especially keen to get the message across that doing something, however small, is really important.” The peer educators were trained in practical first-aid


skills by their co-ordinator with some assistance from the British Red Cross in the weeks before the day. Building on their peer-mentor training they also looked at teaching skills in large and small group situations. They dealt effectively, even with reticent pupils. “There was no way he was going to join in so i got him to tell me how to do it,” said one peer educator. The school added: “The majority of students were


engaged and active, appreciating that the examples they were given by their colleagues were highly relevant and ones they may well encounter in the years to come. The feedback from an evaluation carried out on the day was phenomenal. Students had taken in and listened to what their peers were teaching. They admitted they had been in first aid situations before and had not known what to do. now they do.” at William Brookes School, in Much Wenlock,


Shropshire, the Life. Live it. programme is used for all of their year 8 pupils. Maureen Turner, head of PSHE and citizenship at


the school, said: “First aid is an important life-skill. We have seen over this programme how the students have changed in their attitude towards situations that, in the past, they may have crossed the road to avoid. “all the teachers, including myself, now feel that we


are more capable of dealing with first-aid situations and also immensely proud of our students and the journey we have taken together.”


Changing a generation


Sixteen-year-old Sinda Bharrat took an optional first aid course offered by her school. One of just 12 students who signed up voluntarily, there were also eight others who were obliged to attend as a part of their reintegration to school following a period of exclusion. Sinda immediately noticed a difference in the


important repercussions in the way they view it. What’s more, many of the youths who have been killed may have had a greater chance of survival if their friends and bystanders had had the wherewithal to intervene and offer essential early treatment for their injuries.


Everyone benefits


it is not just students helping students either. a population of first-aiders can reduce injuries and save the lives of more people than you might imagine. For example, administering CPR can double or triple the chances of survival of a heart-attack victim, while opening an airway in an unconscious casualty (who may have only four minutes to live) can mean the difference between life and death. Basic procedures such as cooling a burn can reduce the need for skin grafting, lessen injury and promote healing. The British Red Cross believes that these are just


some of the skills that all young people should learn as they grow towards independence, take part in risky behaviours and take on more responsibilities such as childcare and learning to drive. Ms Cooper said: “We should also want the next


generation to know how to reach out and help others in crisis, whether it is a member of their own family, a friend or a fellow citizen.” in other words, we want to encourage empathy and


action for others, rather than this drive for selfishness and self-interest that has permeated the current generation.


Implementing the programme


First aid can be taught in PSHE lessons in key stages 3 and 4 using the Life. Live it. resource. it can also be integrated into science, technology,


drama and many other lessons. it can also be used to reinforce a general school ethos, such as developing an expectation of students and staff supporting each other in times of need. The feedback overwhelmingly shows that the


lessons engage the pupils, using a variety of teaching approaches – from decision lines to role play – while practising emergency calls. The programme pack is carefully put together to ensure that there is a variety of activities, which will accommodate all learning styles, from kinaesthetic (putting colleagues into the recovery position) to visual (ordering the way bleeds should be treated). Mandy Davies, co-ordinator for young people’s


personal development within the Staffordshire School improvement Division, told SecEd: “The resource pack provides schools with an excellent context to support the delivery of the SEaL (Social and Emotional aspects of Learning) programme. “Young people’s self-confidence is greatly enhanced


as they acquire practical coping skills for emergency situations. They are also given the opportunity to practise and develop empathy with others’ situations in a safe and supportive learning environment.”


Cases in point


There have been some notable successes and unexpected benefits to this programme. in particular, Churchfields School in Swindon developed a successful peer- mentoring scheme, which was extended to encourage peer mentors to deliver first aid education to all students in years 8 to 10. The school reported that: “giving the students the


opportunity to learn basic first aid has been found to not only enable students to learn an important life-skill but


attitudes of the attendees. She explained: “at the beginning, the guys who didn’t want to be there were just talking and messing around on their phones, but i think everyone sat up and started to listen when the instructor started talking about how we could help our friends if they were ever in trouble. “The stuff was really relevant to these guys – dealing


with knife injuries and gunshot wounds, choking on vomit after drinking too much, and things like that. They were listening. They got really into helping out and by the time we got to the basic things you need to know, they were really keen to try them out. “about three weeks after the course, one of these


guys was looking after his little brother and there was an accident with a kettle. The little boy was badly injured and went into shock. With what he had learned in our course, the older guy was able to cool off his burns and put the boy into the recovery position so that he didn’t die. The ambulance people said that he’d saved his brother’s life. “There was a lot of talk about this at school


afterwards, and he was a bit of a hero. i thought it was really good that someone was a hero for saving a life rather than taking one away.” Empowering students, giving them the skills, tools


and confidence they need to make split-second, life- saving decisions and implement first aid techniques can not only encourage them to value the sanctity of life, but improve self-esteem, school and community relationships and, of course, the ability to empathise with others. if even a single life can be saved – a handful of viewpoints changed – we will be well on our way to making the societal shifts that will reduce youth violence and improve emotional health on all levels. Life. Live it. is an obvious starting point.


SecEd


• Karen Sullivan is a bestselling author, psychologist and childcare expert.


Further information www.redcross.org.uk/lifeliveit


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