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Introduction
Introduction

First Aid is temporary emergency medical care and treatment of an injured or ill
person. This program has been developed to provide you with the necessary skills
and knowledge to sustain life or prevent further injury, to relieve pain, and to coun-
teract shock until medical aid can be obtained.

Many of the teaching methods in our programs are built on the interaction
between and among the students and the instructors. The more you participate the
more benefit you will get from the program. Please ask questions! Draw from the in-
structor's expertise. Our educators are emergency professionals with years of
real-life knowledge and teaching experience. If you have ever been involved in a
medical emergency or even have called 9-1-1, now is the opportunity to share your
experience or ask questions about it.

This program is intended to be a practical guide to addressing an emergency
situation. What we expect from you at the end of this training session is that you
can recognize a specific emergency medical problem from the signs, symptoms, and
history and provide an appropriate treatment for it.

Signs - Things you see regarding the patient, such as sweating or bleeding.

Symptoms - Things the patient tells you themselves, such as nausea or pain.

History - The sequence of events preceding an accident or illness or a patient pre-
vious medical status including past illnesses, medications and allergies.

Mechanism of Injury (M.O.I.) - Generally refers to what might have caused the injury
or attempts to answer the question “How did it happen?”

Treatment - A step-by-step sequence of details you should attempt to do for your
patient. A-B-C (Airway-Breathing-Circulation) is always the highest priority. Regard-
less of the condition, if any A-B-C problem requires care, the rescuer must address it.

Important Note: It shall be assumed that all treatment sequences begin with an
Emergency Assessment Plan and finish with the patient seeking medical aid. When
treating all unconscious patients it is assumed that all collapses are witnessed by
the rescuer and the possibility of head or neck injuries has been ruled out.

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