We had our first session in disaster medical training Thursday night in CERT class. This session was mostly classroom, so I don’t have any exciting photos to share this week, but for next week’s session, a paramedic will be running the class and we’ll supposedly be practicing a whole bunch of stuff.
For this class, we learned how to triage disaster victims into categories that determine their levels of injury, the idea being that there are multiple victims and that we are not to initially spend more than 30 seconds on each person. First, we check to see if they are breathing and their airways are clear, but no more than twice before moving on. If the airway is clear, we check for bleeding, and then we check for shock. We went over symptoms and did a couple of practice exercises. In one exercise a couple of volunteers laid down on the floor and we practiced the correct way to approach a victim, and practiced properly tilting their heads to clear their airways. In another exercise, we bandaged each other’s wrists after going over bleeding and pressure points.
I remember reading and learning some basic first aid when in ROTC and girl scouts, but I really haven’t done much with it since then. Sometime after the basic CERT training is over, I’d like to take a couple courses with the Red Cross on first aid and CPR, and really get up to speed with those. It just seems that those are skills that practically everyone should learn, especially since every second counts in an emergency situation.
I’m having so much fun in this class that it just doesn’t seem like it’s 3 hours long. I’m not sure what to expect for next week, but it definitely sounds like it will prove interesting. Also after next week, I’ll be over halfway through the training and on my way towards being a full member of CERT!
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