First Aid is a vital skill and one that can be life saving. The training offered through Guernsey Air Cadets is intended to be progressive, from leaning the very basics to more advanced adult qualifications.
The Heart Start programme, supported by the British Heart Foundation teaches basic, life saving first aid. The course covers CPR and the recovery position, choking, bleeding and heart conditions. It teaches cadets what to do should they find themselves in an emergency situation and how best to assist and call the emergency services.
Further training is provided in the form of the St John’s Ambulance, Young Lifesaver Plus course. This course provides the cadets with a recognised First Aid qualification and teaches them a range of skills for a variety of scenarios. .
Courses are also run for adult volunteers, allowing them to not only gain first aid qualifications, but also allowing them to instruct first aid to the cadets.
During a competition cadets will be presented with an incident and be asked to deal with it. The simulated situation could be anything from a road traffic collision, a work place injury, an injured walker or many other incidents that you may come across.
The cadets are assessed to see how well they deal with the situation, their basic first aid skills, be that putting on a plaster to performing CPR, and how they work as a team.