Bushwalk Australia

It's been more than a decade since I last dis a course and requalified so I don't now know much about current courses.
My 16YO Grand daughter just asked my advice about doing a first aid qualification and I don't know what to advise her.
Is the StJohns course still OK ?
We'll pay for the course because her mother is now back at school [ doing a Masters in Education] and not much money in the household at the moment; so I want to spend my money wisely
Geelong area so no travelling to Melbourne

I taught First Aid with St John's back when it was a 4 day course, and it went into a lot of very interesting detail. However, lot of that detail may have added to confusion about things like whether it was a poisonous stone fish or a non-poisonous but painful spike from something else, whether it was internal bleeding or just gastro, exactly what sort of poison did they drink, etc.

That was decades ago. I've continued to do the course every 3 years with CPR update annually. It's now a fair bit of online and a day in the class room. For the folks who don't have learning challenges, I'd say the course is even better.

I've also done Red Cross, just as good. A friend who went with another trainer (well-known but I won't slag them on a public forum) said they were behind the times.

Moondog55 wrote:... I want to spend my money wisely...

My local council received a grant as part of a community resilience program to offer Red Cross first aid courses to local residents. The tuition was a mix of online and in-person.

It could be worth asking your local council or community hub if anything like that is available in your area to get things started.

Separately, I saw a news item about the GoodSam app. There is some great technology and wonderful, caring people out there.

Ive suggested to her that she ask her school if they could run a whole class for her year group.

I find the current basic first aid course to be quite simple compared to 10 or so years back.

My workplace also does the 2 day Remote Area First Aid, which adds a little more practical / real world skills given that the ambulance is never just 15minutes away.
Although compared to the remote course I did with my local bushwalking club about 15 years ago to the Remote course I did this year it has also been simplified.

The key point (IMHO) is the instructor and the student’s participation, if there is a desire to finish early then the more practical aspects of the course get condensed on the day.

Wazza

Moondog55 wrote: ... ask her school...

I'd love for basic first aid to be part of every young person's education. It would be great if the DRSABCD action plan were more widely known!

I imagine school administrators will say they already have enough to get through, so I was encouraged to see my local government working on community care and resilience programs.

wazzawalkin wrote:... My workplace also does the 2 day Remote Area First Aid, which adds a little more practical / real world skills ...

I enjoyed a comprehensive remote area course over two full weekends back when SES BSAR was still BWRS. That course really transformed me from someone who would like to be useful in an emergency to someone who actually would be!

I get the impression that all first aid courses have unfortunately been abbreviated over the years.
I also did the full 4 day remote area course with St John around 2007 and it was really good back then.
I think we covered just about every possible scenario and had to do practical simulations that were quite confronting.
A lot of it was also managing casualties for an extended period, and improvising with whatever you had available.

For anyone in Tassie, our TAFE has been running heavily subsidised Wilderness First Aid courses https://www.tastafe.tas.edu.au/courses/course/sisss00126.

It's a full 3-days and really worthwhile. I did one last year. A bargain at $175, or under $60 if you qualify for a Concession. Don't know if other states are or will subsidise these courses, but it's a good idea.

Thornbill wrote:For anyone in Tassie, our TAFE has been running heavily subsidised Wilderness First Aid courses https://www.tastafe.tas.edu.au/courses/course/sisss00126.

It's a full 3-days and really worthwhile. I did one last year. A bargain at $175, or under $60 if you qualify for a Concession. Don't know if other states are or will subsidise these courses, but it's a good idea.

Who is running the course these days? I first did it a few years ago when it was a 5 day course, run by Nate Welch which was brilliant.

Nate now does training through Wild Education Tasmania and I would highly recommend him.

matagi wrote:

Thornbill wrote:For anyone in Tassie, our TAFE has been running heavily subsidised Wilderness First Aid courses https://www.tastafe.tas.edu.au/courses/course/sisss00126.

It's a full 3-days and really worthwhile. I did one last year. A bargain at $175, or under $60 if you qualify for a Concession. Don't know if other states are or will subsidise these courses, but it's a good idea.

Who is running the course these days? I first did it a few years ago when it was a 5 day course, run by Nate Welch which was brilliant.

Nate now does training through Wild Education Tasmania and I would highly recommend him.

I honestly can't recall the name of the instructors off the top of my head, but I thought they were pretty good. I would agree that a 5-day course is better, and I actually wanted to keep going at the end of day 3 to get into more scenarios. But a heavily subsidised course is definitely attractive for those paying out of their own pocket as opposed to having their workplace pay.

Thornbill wrote:

matagi wrote:

Thornbill wrote:For anyone in Tassie, our TAFE has been running heavily subsidised Wilderness First Aid courses https://www.tastafe.tas.edu.au/courses/course/sisss00126.

It's a full 3-days and really worthwhile. I did one last year. A bargain at $175, or under $60 if you qualify for a Concession. Don't know if other states are or will subsidise these courses, but it's a good idea.

Who is running the course these days? I first did it a few years ago when it was a 5 day course, run by Nate Welch which was brilliant.

Nate now does training through Wild Education Tasmania and I would highly recommend him.

I honestly can't recall the name of the instructors off the top of my head, but I thought they were pretty good. I would agree that a 5-day course is better, and I actually wanted to keep going at the end of day 3 to get into more scenarios. But a heavily subsidised course is definitely attractive for those paying out of their own pocket as opposed to having their workplace pay.

We did a night time scenario on the 5 day course - complete with leaf blower simulating a helicopter. Did my refresher with him a couple of years ago through his private RTO and he still does a lot of scenarios including a night one. He puts a lot of work into them too.