Summary of basic first aid skills popularization training

87% of the participants can quickly master the core standards of Heimlich maneuver, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) + automated external defibrillator (AED) operation, but only 21% clearly stated that they would take the initiative to rescue when encountering an emergency first aid scenario. The core reason that hinders rescue is not a weak grasp of skills, but concerns about "rescue errors". The differences in operational details of different first aid systems will intensify the choice confusion of ordinary learners.

As a practical teaching assistant who followed the whole process, I was not surprised at all when I first got this statistic. During the second training session last week, I encountered a very typical thing: Aunt Wang, who lives in Building 3, was so good at practicing Heimlich that she could be a demonstration model. She turned around and pulled me by the corner of my clothes and asked, "Xiao Zhou, what if I press the pressure on someone else and they say I broke their ribs and ask me to compensate?" ”

We specially invited two lecturers with different backgrounds for this training. One is a pre-hospital emergency physician who has worked in the city emergency center for 12 years, and the other is an emergency nurse from a private hospital who holds an American Heart Association (AHA) instructor certificate. The two have different opinions on the position of Heimlich's force application: Dr. Li from the emergency center said that when dispatching police on the front line, they are used to looking for the position two horizontal fingers below the xiphoid process, which can minimize the pressure on the stomach and cause vomiting.； Instructor Zhang from the AHA said that the latest guidelines clearly require two fingers horizontally above the navel, making it easier for ordinary people to find the position. The two of them debated this matter for ten minutes while preparing for class. In the end, we gave the students an argument that did not favor either side. We said that for ordinary people to rescue, as long as they look for the area in the middle of the belly, above the navel and below the sternum, and use force inwards and upwards, it is better than not daring to reach out. The difference in position is one or two centimeters, which is far less important than "dare to take action".

Don't tell me, the fastest learner in this training was a boy in his second year of high school. He was familiar with the CPR compression depth (5-6cm) and frequency (100-120 times/minute) in 15 minutes. When performing compressions, the simulator kept the green light on throughout the process, which was more standard than some community workers who came to observe. But he told me privately that he saw someone fainting at the subway station last month. He had just seen a CPR instruction video and did not dare to step forward. "I was afraid that I pressed the wrong button. If the person who came was fine, something happened to me and I couldn't afford it." ”

In order to allay everyone's concerns, we specially added a section on the popularization of the "Good Guy Law" in the Civil Code and invited legal advisors from the community. As a result, the consultant's statement was different from that of the emergency physician: The consultant said that the "Good Guy Act" does not provide unlimited immunity. If the rescuer is intentional or grossly negligent, he will still have to bear corresponding responsibilities.； However, Dr. Li from the emergency center directly added that ordinary people are not professional medical nurses. As long as they do not intentionally beat the patient during rescue, even if they break the ribs, it is not considered a major negligence. "If the heart stops for 4 minutes, the brain will be irreversibly dead. If you are wondering whether to press or break the ribs, the person will be dead." ”We didn't give the students standard answers at that time, so we just told them exactly what they said, and added that there have been dozens of cases across the country where ordinary people successfully rescued people and were not held responsible even if they suffered rib fractures. If something happens, don't be too afraid.

What’s interesting is that everyone used to think that AED was a high-tech tool that only doctors could use. As a result, we asked 72-year-old Grandma Zhang to follow the voice prompts of the AED. From turning it on, applying electrode pads to waiting for defibrillation, there were no mistakes in the whole process. The old lady was stunned after finishing it and said, "Is this the end?" I saw this red box when I was in the mall before, and thought I would have to pay for it if it was damaged. ”

Regarding the controversy over whether CPR requires artificial respiration, this time I also made it clear to students: AHA’s latest guideline recommends that ordinary witnesses can only perform chest compressions without artificial respiration, so as to avoid being afraid of rescuing because they are too dirty or afraid of infectious diseases.； However, some domestic first aid experts believe that artificial respiration is more effective in the special cases of drowning and suffocation of children. Our advice to students is that if you are willing to do it and don't mind contact, just follow the rhythm of 30 compressions and 2 artificial respirations. If you don't want to touch a stranger's mouth, just keep pressing on the chest until the ambulance arrives or the AED is in place. Do whatever is convenient for you. Don't worry about the perfect process.

In the third week after the training, we received a WeChat message from Aunt Wang. She encountered a 3-year-old child at the vegetable market who had a date kernel stuck in it, and his face turned purple. She went up and pressed it three times, and the date kernel spurted out. The aunt said that she didn't care about taking responsibility at the time, she just thought that nothing would happen to the child. "It wasn't until I pressed the button that I realized, was I in the right position? Now I think about leaving him alone, as long as someone saves him. ”

After so many first aid trainings, my biggest feeling is that teaching skills is really the easiest part. The hard part is to unload the psychological burden on ordinary people, and there is no need to fill them with too complicated school controversies. It is enough to give them a minimum standard of "enough to save lives" - after all, in first aid, "doing it" is always 10,000 times more important than "doing every detail right".