Accidents and emergencies tend to occur during the most inopportune time. When you least expect it, someone gets seriously hurt or placed in a life-threatening situation. When not treated promptly, fatalities can occur. Fortunately, such grim scenario can be prevented with basic first aid training, along with the availability of the essential first aid supplies.

The simple act of administering immediate treatment to people who incur injuries or those with debilitating illnesses can help save lives and promote fast recovery. This is precisely the reason why it is generally recommended that we must all learn how to administer first aid. Its importance can’t be stressed enough, especially in today’s society in which people are living at breakneck speed.

Having first aid training will give you the knowledge and skill to respond to various types of emergencies like accidents, natural disasters, ingestion of toxic substances, and serious health-related conditions such as heart attacks. In these situations, you don’t want to be among the helpless persons simply standing around, watching the victim suffer. You should be the one who can step in and provide the necessary treatment and relief until emergency responders or paramedics arrive.

If you’re trained to administer first aid and you have basic first aid supplies on hand, you can act on a potentially life and death situation. Fast and definitive action can spell the difference between life and death. By instinct, everyone would try to help in any way possible but those who haven’t received ample training are likely to panic or commit fatal mistakes as compared to those who have undergone formal training from professionals and accredited organizations.

Having said that, it stands to reason that you choose carefully where you’ll receive the training and take into account the credentials of the first aid trainer. This will ensure that you’ll learn the correct techniques of administering first aid as well as the proper use of first aid supplies. You may have noticed in medical films or in actual emergencies that there are specific guidelines and sequence of steps that must be strictly followed when it comes to handling the victims. Without some basic knowledge and experience, you could actually do more harm than good.

On the whole, first aid training will empower you to save lives regardless of the place and time.  For as long as you complete and pass the course, you will have the confidence to act on life-threatening situations that you may encounter at home, in the workplace, and even in public places. The knowledge and skill set that you’ll gain will be quite handy and beneficial, especially if you or your loves ones are directly involved.

Just keep these in mind: six minutes without oxygen and the brain dies; a person can bleed to death in as little as five minutes. These highlight the importance of immediate and appropriate care. With that said, you might as well begin training for first aid as soon as possible. It is very basic in nature and is not complicated to learn at all. More importantly, you can make a world of difference by being a potential life saver!

First Aid Training? is a post from: First Aid Distributions

Benefits of Nitrile gloves over Latex Gloves

In many industries today, protecting the skin is of paramount importance. Depending upon the profession in question, the reasons may be to prevent the spread of disease, protect skin from caustic chemicals or to protect sensitive equipment from the natural oils and bacteria that normally coat the hands. Due to the need for gloves to be replaced on a regular basis, along with concerns about communicable diseases, disposable gloves are generally preferred. Among doctors, dentists, various technical professions and lab researchers, latex and nitrile gloves tend to be the preference for first aid supplies. Both gloves offer a degree of flexibility that is difficult to match, as well as various degrees of sensitivity, durability and protection.

 Latex Gloves

Latex gloves are manufactured from natural latex rubber, a non-vulcanised rubber produced by many plants as a protection against herbivorous insects. The unique properties of latex allow manufacturers to produce a glove that fits almost like a second skin, providing protection from caustic substances and preventing the spread of communicable diseases. Latex gloves are often favoured by budget conscious institutions, such as hospitals and research facilities, due to their relatively low cost and their extremely high durability. Latex gloves are susceptible to being punctured or cut by sharp objects but highly resistant to tearing and puncturing from blunt objects. This makes them ideal for use as first aid supplies in the medical industry, various mechanical and technical industries and for research purposes, where sterility and elasticity are highly important.

Nitrile Gloves

Nitrile gloves are manufactured using a nitrile butadiene rubber, often referred to as NBR. This polymer produces a glove that is extremely resistant to oils and acids, making it an ideal glove for any industry where the skin must be protected from such substances but the wearer needs a certain level of tactile information to perform a task.

What makes Nitrile Gloves a Better choice?

Due to the overall low cost and superior durability, latex gloves often are the foremost choice for various institutions. Unfortunately, those two considerations, while important, are not the only things consumers need to keep in mind when selecting protective gloves. Many people are severely allergic to latex and will have an anaphylactic reaction to any contact with latex gloves or the powder that is used to coat them. Even more people are mildly allergic to latex, coming up with a rash within minutes of exposure. The severity of the allergy varies greatly among consumers but it raises some serious issues for medical practitioners. Some varieties of latex gloves are coated in corn starch which, while harmless to most, can also cause severe respiratory problems and contact reactions for both patients and practitioners.

Nitrile does not have the same durability as latex but the difference between the two is negligible for most medical applications. They provide better protection from caustic substances and have no risk of invoking an allergic reaction. For medical professionals, nitrile is often the superior choice for these reasons alone. For researchers and professionals working with caustic substances, oils and various acids, nitrile gloves provide the most stable protection and actually have a higher endurance than latex gloves.

Ultimately, the choice between latex and nitrile will come down to the specific needs of the industry in question. For those in the medical industry, however, nitrile provides the same protections for professional and patient from communicable illnesses while also protecting both from unsuspected allergic reactions to latex.

Sources

http://www.aps.anl.gov/Safety_and_Training/User_Safety/gloveselection.html

http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.110308.120307

Benefits of Nitrile gloves over Latex Gloves is a post from: First Aid Distributions

Introducing Our New Sports Tape Line

Premium Rigid Strapping Tape – Provides strength and stability to joints during high-stress sports activities

Key Features:

• High tensile strength (premium grade)
• Strong adhesion
• Flesh coloured
• Serrated edges
• Hand tearable
• Hypoallergenic and latex free

Elastic Adhesive Bandage – Provides compression and support for joints and muscles to help minimise swelling

Key Features:

• Strong elastic support
• Conforms easily to joint contours
• Non-fraying feathered edge
• Central line for easy alignment
• Support or compression can be adjusted during application

Hand Tearable Stretch Tape – Premium grade non-woven tape that sticks to itself, lightweight and porous to allow the skin to breath.

Key Features:

• Hand tearable
• White in colour
• Perfect for joint compression and support
• No need for clips or pins
• Lightweight and water repellant
• Quick on-field application

Kinesiology Tape - Designed to augment the body’s natural healing process while maintaining support and stability to joints and muscles without necessarily impeding or restricting range of motion.

Key Features:

• Hypoallergenic and latex free
• Non-restrictive, elastic taping material
• Comfortable to wear for up to 3 to 5 days
• Used to treat orthopaedic, neurological, and neuromuscular affectations

Sport Strapping Tapes is a post from: First Aid Distributions

If you are an avid traveler, there are certain first aid tips that you should know. You may not me a doctor, but having the appropriate level of first aid supplies and training can be quite handy during emergencies. The Lonely Planet’s Book of Everything provided some first aid tips that you’ll certainly find useful. Check the link below for the full list of tips. First aid is actually based on a few simple principles: saving lives, prevention of further harm and promotion of speedy recovery.

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advisor/first-aid-tips-for-the-traveller/story-e6frfqfr-1226536090100

Travellers Guide To First Aid is a post from: First Aid Distributions

Authorities are urging Central Coast residents to learn CPR and do a first aid course following a series of drownings in the region. Paramedics have responded to three drowning incidents and seven near drownings since December 19. A 62-year-old man reportedly drowned in Patonga while a three-year-old girl was resuscitated on New Year’s Day in Avoca Beach. Three days later, a one-year-old boy almost drowned in a backyard pool at Umina Beach. On January 6, a man managed to resuscitate his two-year-old granddaughter after finding her face down in a pool at Patonga. Paramedic and acting station officer at Ettalong Beach David Morris raised concerns about the incidents, adding that the three children were lucky to have survived although things could have gone terribly wrong if CPR hadn’t been performed. In light of the recent developments, Mr. Morris stressed the importance of CPR and having the appropriate level of first aid supplies and training. For those without formal training who happen to get caught up in an emergency, call Triple 0 and the skilled call takers will help in handling the situation.

Source:

http://express-advocate-gosford.whereilive.com.au/news/story/central-coast-residents-urged-to-learn-cpr-in-wake-of-drownings/

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Residents urged to learn CPR following a spate of drownings is a post from: First Aid Distributions

As of mid 2012 the Asthma Foundation began advocating that all children’s services and schools begin a policy of only using single use asthma spacers for each person which is aimed at reducing the risk of infection. This new policy applies to all community setting such as asthma emergency kits, asthma training courses and all clinical settings.

Why the move away from reusable spacers?

Asthma spacers are classified as medical devices, and are meant for single person use only according to the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC). The NHMRC is a trusted advisory body, which publishes the ‘Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare’. They are in charge of making sure that infection does not spread in community and clinical settings. These new guidelines have been put in place to prevent the spread of infection from one person to another by the use of spacers and masks. Once a spacer or mask has been used by one person, unless it can be sterilised, it should only be used again by that same individual so that no other person an become contaminated by any pathogens that could have been spread to the device in question even if it has been thoroughly washed.

The previous policy put into place by the NHMRC included exceptions for community settings and schools, allowing for spacers to be reused if they had been cleaned between uses. This as originally intended to cut costs for those settings, but has been revoked due to the risk of spreading infection between users of the spacers.

This new policy is now mandatory for all schools, since it has been added to the ‘School Policy and Advisory Guide’ (SPAG). The Department of Education has adopted this policy for all schools up to year twelve.

Children’s communities are also required to follow this new policy, as it has been added to the ‘Education and Care Services National Regulations’. This makes the new policy of single use spacers mandatory for all out of hours child care, long day care, and family day care centres as well as kindergartens and preschools. Under these updated regulations, licensed providers of children’s care must ensure that an adequate number of well stocked and maintained kits are kept on the premises at all times that children are being cared for.

If any school or community setting fails to follow this new policy of only using single use asthma spacers, they could face legal repercussions and fines for placing children at risk for infections.

What spacers are available?

Under the new policy, only the following types of single use spacers are recommended for use:

For ages 0 – 5 La Petite Disposable Asthma spacer with face mask, since face masks are required for all children five years or younger.

For everyone else up through year twelve that the new policy covers, Liteaire Disposable Asthma Spacers are recommended for use.

By adopting this new policy, the hope is to reduce the spread of respiratory infections amongst children under care. While costs might rise because of the adoption of this policy, the reduced risk has been found by the NHMRC to be a worthy offset.

Disposable Asthma Spacer Changes is a post from: First Aid Distributions

Although it is sometimes mixed up with heart attacks, cardiac arrest is more a symptom than a medical condition in its own right. Heart attacks occur when blood is blocked from being pumped through the heart, which causes the muscle cells to die and can lead to eventual cardiac arrest. In contrast, cardiac arrest describes all incidences where the heart ceases to beat. Although heart attacks are a significant source of cardiac arrests, so too is the condition called ventricular fibrillation.

People who undergo ventricular fibrillation experience cardiac arrest because their ventricles begin to twitch rather than continue contracting in a coordinated manner. As a result, blood is no longer pumped throughout their bodies, which means that their brains and other organs begin shutting down. Untreated, even the twitching characteristic to ventricular fibrillation will cease in short order, causing the people caught in a state of cardiac arrest to perish. Although ventricular fibrillation tends to strike older individuals, there is no demographic that is exempt from its spectre.

 How a Defibrillator Can Help Prevent Death From Cardiac Arrest

However, having defibrillators can help reduce the consequences from the onset of ventricular fibrillation. Defibrillators are machines used to send electrical shocks intended to restart hearts that have ceased to beat. Their existence is important because defibrillation is the only treatment available for ventricular fibrillation.

Reasons to Have Defibrillators in the Workplace

It is important to have an automatic external defibrillator (AED) available in the workplace because more convenient access means better chances of survival for people undergoing ventricular fibrillation. Each second that passes in this process is another second during which blood is not flowing to the brain and other important organs. In fact, each minute that passes until defibrillation is received means that the victim’s chances of survival fall another 7 to 10 percent. Similarly, each minute lost to delay reduces the chance that the victim will be able to live a normal existence even after his or her heart is restarted, due to potential brain damage.

A victim’s chances of surviving ventricular fibrillation hovers around 30 to 40 percent so long as treatment is received within 5 to 7 minutes. Given that standard response times tend to hover around nine minutes to get to the scene, it should come as no surprise that 95 percent of victims die before managing to reach a hospital.

A large study undertaken in the United States which looked at over 10,000 cases found that early defibrillation on scene increased the survival rate significantly. The survival rate where a bystander administered CPR but no defibrillation was around 7 – 9%. Where an AED was placed on the patient and a shock given the survival rate was 36% a staggering 27% increase. However an AED will not give an electric shock if the patient is in asystole, which means there is no cardiac output at all, when this occurs CPR is the only resuscitation method possible before paramedics arrive.

CPR and the Defibrillator

Therefore the importance of administering CPR correctly is absolutely critical, that is why we only recommend the Samaritan PAD500P the only AED to offer voice guided CPR instruction. This amazing piece of technology guides the user performing CPR by measuring the effectiveness of each compression and telling them to either speed up or slow down. This ensures the patient has the best chance of survival as not everyone is trained in CPR, and even if you are trained in CPR the PAD500P can help you administer it specific to the patient and in turn improve the patients chance of survival. Not to mention some added voice guidance in a highly stressful situation can only be a benefit.

References:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/565379

http://www.quickmedical.com/defibrillator/faq.html

http://www.cardiacscience.com/assets/012/6382.pdf

http://www.firstaiddistributions.com.au/product-range/defibrulators/aed-defibrillator-samaritan-pad500p-with-cpr-advisor

Importance of having an AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) in the workplace is a post from: First Aid Distributions

Under the guise of wanting to be a champion of creating safer workplaces for Australians, Julia Gillard set out to establish an entity for her then client and partner, union boss Bruce Wilson. Many believed that the formal application would free up resources for things like first aid supplies, first aid training and other job-related health and safety measures and services, but it would come out much later that the entity was not actually set up for this purpose. Three years later, during an internal investigation, the partners of her law firm found out that the entity was being used as a “slush fund” to raise cash for the re-election of certain union officials. The truth had come out when Ms Gillard was forced to admit the true purpose of the entity following a very serious allegation that the entity had been used by Mr Wilson to misappropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Source:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/julia-gillard-set-up-work-safety-entity-that-was-a-slush-fund/story-fn6tcxar-1226456179736

Julia Gillard’s Push for Workplace Safety Actually Self Serving is a post from: First Aid Distributions

In response to four deaths occurring on ACT work sites since December, the ACT Government has finally decided to push ahead with an investigation into the civil and construction sector regarding workplace safety. In the hopes of preventing further deaths or injuries — especially on construction sites — the Government has also hired former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs to take the lead on the independent inquiry. Attorney-General Simon Corbell is unimpressed with the number of deaths and injuries that have occurred, especially with three of them occurring on construction sites. He said: “This inquiry is designed to get to the bottom of those issues and to make recommendations to the Government on how we can further improve work health and safety here in the ACT.” Having an emergency first aid kit on site is the first step in the plan, but the inquiry will need to go much deeper. It is expected that the inquiry panel will discuss its findings with the Attorney-General in November.

Source:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/14682034/building-site-safety-under-scrutiny/

Attorney General Finds ACT Worker Deaths Unacceptable: Inquiry Issued is a post from: First Aid Distributions

In the Victorian suburb of Pakenham, a plumber was connecting a sewer on a housing construction site when a trench collapsed in on him. Even though a colleague was able to raise the alarm for help in time, the incident serves as a strong reminder for construction professionals about the dangers associated with trenches. Allan Beacom, a WorkSafe Victoria construction manager, said that the worker was very lucky to have a colleague nearby, because trench collapses can cause asphyxia, broken arms and legs, and crush injuries. To warn about the dangers of trenches, Beacom says, “Poor soil stability and loose earth places workers at greater risk of serious injury if a trench is a metre or more deep. We urge those who are putting together a safe work method statement to take these factors into account.” To prevent injuries associated with trenches, workers should ensure that a colleague is on sight at all times when the work is being performed, that materials are kept away from the edge of the trench, and first aid equipment should be nearby at all times.

Source:

http://www.safetowork.com.au/news/reminder-to-construction-workers-about-dangers-of

Plumber Accident Reminds Construction Professionals of Trench Dangers is a post from: First Aid Distributions