First Aid Training Flowchart

7 top tips for retaining your First Aid knowledge

Most first aid certificates last for 3 years, some for just one year. In between, your knowledge and possible ability to respond, naturally fades. If we deal with very few incidents in the workplace, this lack of practice in skills is compounded and can lead to a poor response to an incident.

There is no legal obligation to provide first aiders with formal training during the intervening 3 year periods. However, HSE guidance states that employers are encouraged to allow first aiders time for ‘self-directed revision’ in order to maintain their first aid skills. In reality, this may not always be a practical.

One of the things we stress in our courses is confidence as well as competence. If you’re having trouble remembering which way that sling goes on or the techniques in stopping a major bleed, reassuring your casualty is made all that harder.

Regular self-directed or team refreshers in between first aid courses will help you retain your competence as well as your confidence.

Here’s our 7 top tips in helping you retain your first aid knowledge.

1. Practice makes permanent – watch one of our First Aid videos

Most techniques we demonstrate in our first aid courses have a relevant demonstration video on our YouTube channel.

You can search the channel if you’re looking for a particular topic or scroll through and randomly refresh your skills. But these are practical demonstrations – try and replicate them in a workplace session or at home with family. Pay attention to the words used as well as the practical techniques.

They are good, short 2-3 minute demonstration videos of good first aid techniques.

2. Digital First Aid Manuals in your pocket

Every participant on our courses gets a free digital first aid manual. These are excellent up to date resources that are at your fingertips. They can be downloaded onto your phone, tablet or printed off for reference copy at home, a vehicle or in the workplace. On a device, they only take the same space as 3-4 photos.

Once you open the manual and go to the contents page, you select the topic you want to look up. You are then automatically taken to that page where you’ll find detail on signs & symptoms and what to do. Some pages have links to videos on our YouTube channel for practical techniques or blogs on our website for more detailed information.

It’s a useful document to dip in to on a regular basis to refresh your skills. Seen something on the news about an incident or accident and wondered “what’s the first aid for that?” Have a look in your manual.

We have a range of first aid manuals including First Aid at Work, Equestrian First Aid, Outdoor First Aid, Paediatric First Aid and Sports First Aid. You can find out more about our range of first aid manuals via this link.

Discussing and planning first aid and emergency responses helps everyone in the team retain and share their first aid knowledge.

3. Using ‘What ifs’ to refresh and plan your team’s first aid response.

In some workplaces, there is the need to stress the importance of leadership in addressing organisational safety. Everyone is responsible for health and safety at work but corporate governance of safety is a legal requirement. The influence of managerial leadership on workplace safety climate is profound in good and bad ways. A safe workplace that takes its safety of its staff and customers is a much happier workplace!

Where I used to work, we had a regular first aid or emergency response item on our standard monthly meeting agenda. If something had happened in the past month, we’d discuss it, chat through our response and share the experience with the wider team. If nothing had happened, we randomly pick a first aid incident and a location and discuss how we would respond.

Everyone was involved in this – from reception staff to Rangers and site maintenance teams. In this way, when something did happen, we were, as a team, much better prepared and confident in our response to that incident.

4. First Aid posters for the workplace.

Most workplaces have a health & safety notice board or just a staff notice board.

You can get a free download of First Aid Incident Response poster from our website here. That’s the poster with ABCDE essentials on it – a great quick reference and refresher tool for emergency situations.

You could also print off pages from the manual, post them on the board and change them regularly to keep people engaged and informed.

5. Read more in depth articles on first aid

If you’re reading this, you’re already using the blog facility on our website. We have over 300 blogs on different topics. These delve into the topics in more detail giving you a better understanding of the topic, its causes and of course the appropriate first aid. Many of them have links to other resources and sites relevant to the topic. They also cover legal responsibilities and any changes to first aid that come into force.

There’s a blog search facility on the blogs page and a set of first aid categories so you can surf through your sector related posts or search for something specific. Blogs are a great resource and most are only a 3 or 4 minute read and a great way to keep up to date and refreshed.

BS8599-1 Large Workplace Kit
Do you know what is in your first aid kit, what instructions are included in certain products and where inside the box they all are?

6. What should you have in your first aid kit?

What is really in your first aid kit? Do you know?

It is always advised that you have a first aid kit ‘monitor’ who checks the first aid kits regularly (monthly is suggested) and replaces out of date or missing items. (The most common things to go missing are gloves, scissors and plasters. )

Do you regularly check your own kit at work, in your car and at home? Do you know what’s in there? There are a lot of pockets and sections in some kits and knowing where everything is will help in an emergency. Some larger kits are set out in ABC arrangement with Airway / Breathing face shields then Circulation kit such as bandages. Having a logical layout inside a first aid kit helps everyone in time of need. It’s also good to read the instructions where the product has them.

Spend some time getting up close and personal with your first aid kit – before you need to use it!

And what should be in all those kits? Read more in our blog here.

7. Use a short first aid course as a refresher or skills developer

On line refresher courses are very useful as a refresher tool but there are also some courses available that look into some topics in more detail.

Our Annual Update for First Aid online course covers the important incident response procedure – the ABCs, Recovery Position, CPR and defibrillator use.

Other short courses available via our website include a course on Deeper Understanding of Concussion and another on A Deeper Understanding of Hypothermia. All of these short online courses can be found on our website and they only cost £30 each. Great affordable CPD that keeps you updated and upskilled!

We also provide a FREE courses on +F Forestry Awareness course and a free course on Mental Health First Aid for Employers

You could also consider doing a one day Emergency First Aid at Work course with your team or join a public course yourself. We can also run courses with an additional one hour of specific content for sectors including Forestry, Paediatric, Outdoors and Equestrian.

Take your first aid beyond the workplace!

Using your first aid skills in a wider context helps retain your knowledge but also helps you learn by experience which is invaluable.

Advanced First Aid courses. You might want to start by looking at our Advanced First Aid Course. In these courses we go more into airway management, severe bleeding using model legs etc with simulated blood, gluing techniques, fractures including femurs and Ten Second Triage and much more. It is a one day course if you’ve already completed an Outdoor First Aid (OFA) course within the past year. It can also be done as a 3 day course including the OFA. Well worth it!

GoodSAM is an app on your phone whereby you sign in as available to help if someone in your vicinity has a cardiac arrest. It greatly reduces emergency response time and saves lives. GoodSAM was founded in 2013 to radically change the response to Cardiac Arrests. By alerting those trained to nearby cardiac arrests while an ambulance is en-route, earlier CPR and defibrillation has saved many lives. You need to have a current First Aid at Work level certificate to sign up. More information can be found here. GoodSAM has also expanded into volunteer vaccine scheme assistants and care responders in England.

Becoming a Community First Responder (CFR) is a valuable and rewarding step up to the next level. Regular training and equipment are supplied. the Scheme is operated by the relevant country’s Ambulance Service. Information on becoming a CFR in Scotland can be found here. In England they are run by the regional Ambulance Services so you’ll need to search them individually. In Wales, you can find out more about CFRs via this link.

Become a First Aid Trainer. The First Aid Training Co-operative’s Trainer Induction Programme ensures that suitable applicants will be fully supported through their holistic development as a First Aid Trainer. Working through all of the qualifications and skills you need, as well as the background industry insight and teaching experience to deliver high-quality training. If this sounds good to you, and you are ready to invest in yourself and a future as a first aid trainer, the first thing you need to do if you haven’t already, is read our blog series on how to Start a First Aid Training Business. This will give you a good idea of the background to starting a first aid training business, and the 5 steps you need to consider if you are thinking about doing so. If you are interested in becoming a trainer with the First Aid Training Co-operative, rather than setting up an entirely independent business, then download our Free Information Pack from our website.