Paediatric First Aid Courses - Should They Be In The School Syllabus?

Cardiac arrest survival rates have levelled off at a time when global medicine seems to be evolving. Experts have revealed that it might not be to do with advances in medicine, but more so the psychological barriers that block the public from administering treatment. Very few would possess the confidence to help someone, which has prompted some to argue that paediatric first aid courses should be included in the school syllabus.

Many people have had to look very deep to try and work out why out of hospital cardiac arrest survival rates are not improving. Research has looked at the science behind the problem and then tried to link it to social and psychological ideology's. The huge amount of statistics can make analyzing cardiac arrest survival rates confusing, but one reoccurring theme is that not enough people are trained in Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). The knock on effect is that the vast majority of the adult population are lacking confidence in first aid situations, and do not possess a basic understanding of how to save someone.

Experts have looked at a very interesting case study that looks at the state of Seattle in the United States of America (USA). Seattle is unique in the sense that it looked at the survival rate statistics, and then actually tried to turn them around..

The state researched the low survival rates and came up with a plan to dramatically increase the amount of people who are trained to administer CPR. They wanted to create a long term initiative that would gather momentum, and then spread over the whole of the population. The initiative got almost half the adult population trained in CPR, which had the effect of doubling 'out of hospital cardiac arrests' over a 32 year period.

There were several high profile cardiac arrests in 2012, which seemed to get the nation talking about the topic. Unfortunately Muamba's survival story was overshadowed by the death of a child in a school football match.

Many people suggested that Paediatric first aid courses should be implemented into the school curriculum in order to help prevent such incidents. However others argued that these events are exceptionally rare, and do not warrant a complete overhaul of the school syllabus. The Fabrice Muamba story proves that early CPR can save lives, and he is now an ambassador for its cause. He got 100,000 people to sign a national campaign, which asked the prime minister to make the training compulsory within the nation's schools.

Children could save their fellow classmates and even their own families if given access to first aid training. It's quite feasible to imagine that every child could receive the training within the school network, which is a skill that they could carry through their adult lives. No one could argue that a science, physical education or mathematics lesson is more important than saving a life?


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Bill Casserley is an experienced first aider, who truly believes “life is for learning”. Could your child save a life? If not then visit the paediatric first aid certificate blog @ http://www.train-aid.co.uk for video tutorials.



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