On January 6th U3A SurfCoast celebrated its first activity for the year with a training morning in First Aid attended by 24 participants, mostly U3A tutors covering almost all U3A classes as well as representatives from the Mens Shed. The session was conducted by Leah Tait from Eclipse Foundation.
We learned how to distinguish between somebody collapsing and still breathing and what to do when there was no sign of breathing. We learned basic methods of CPR and spent some time practising on the dummies provided. Despite perhaps being intimidated by the idea of delivering CPR we found it to be a straightforward process.
Given that many of our classes and activities are now held in venues where there is an available defibrillator we were fortunate to be taken through the simple steps in using such a piece of equipment. It was encouraging to learn that the system itself is voice activated, making each step clear and simple.
Leah also took us through the steps for appropriate First Aid for anybody suffering a hypo attack, a stroke or heart attack, a bleed or even a snake bite. We now feel much more equipped to handle these sorts of unlikely emergencies calmly.
Barry Cock, Excel tutor, remarked at the end of the course that: “Although most of us have attended First Aid training in the past, it was great to have a refresher, with practical hands-on training. Being able to see and use a defibrillator, was something new for me, allowing me the confidence now to have a go with one, should the unthinkable happen in class. Hopefully none of us will ever need to put our new skills to the test, but at least we now can, if we need to.”
The training was made possible with support from Surf Coast Shire’s Small Grants Program.
