Attacks on our society are a real and current threat. Working with local training company, Immerse Medical Training, 12 Digital and Business students from Bournemouth & Poole College undertook the citizenAID course, in order to understand how to administer potentially life-saving treatment to someone who has been involved in a mass casualty event.
Under the direction of Martin Hyland from Immerse Medical Training, students learnt about situations involving an active shooter, knife attacker as well as suspect and exploded bombs. They also discovered how to triage and prioritise casualties if they were having to administer first aid treatment before the emergency services arrive.
This informative and extremely high impact course has been designed under collaboration with senior clinicians from military and NHS backgrounds, with Battlefield Casualty Drills at the core of the advice given. The students were involved in ‘real-life’ scenarios and taught how to act under the official Government guidance of Run, Hide, Tell including practical tips such as learning how to quickly turn your phone into silent mode and “off vibrate” in the case of having to hide from an attacker, as well as how to call for help if you are unable to speak.
Immerse Medical Training have developed a simple and easy method to inform students how to administer emergency treatment which includes stabilising a casualty, stopping the loss of blood, CPR and First Aid for minor injuries. Sharon Mackett, Director of Learning said “We are all too aware of the dreadful events in the world today and this is a difficult subject to tackle. The students who attended the course were all given access to the citizenAID App and the training they received will stay with them forever”.
Martin Hyland, co-founder of Immerse Medical Training, who has a wealth of experience as a senior Emergency Department Nurse added “The skills that students gain from undertaking our citizenAID course enable them to utilise simple yet essential techniques that will save lives in a mass casualty event. We know that the initial concern of the emergency services is scene safety and this leads to a delay in the arrival of the emergency medical personnel, citizenAID enables members of the community to act in order to reduce the devastating effects of such an event prior to the emergency medical services arriving.”
Student Naylyan Salimova who completed the course said “I don’t know how I’d react in that kind of situation but I now know that I don’t just have to provide the first aid I can assist and help triage. I learnt that we can all help our in our own way”.