Refresh your First Responder skills!

Hey there - back after a few days! Did you miss me??? :)

I just spent a great weekend re-learning CPR and First Aid. Have you refreshed/acquired your skills lately? If not, I would strongly urge you to attend a course, especially since the guidelines for CPR/First Aid have been simplified to make it easier than ever for you to administer. It's also an empowering skill - do you want to be one of those dorks who panics or freezes when someone is dying? Me neither! :)

And when I talk about the guidelines for CPR/First Aid, I'm not just talking about some Canadian regulations - these are international protocols! So if you're my reader in South Africa, Japan, the U.K., or God-only-knows-where, or one of my several readers in New York or Arizona (bless you for continually coming back, though I have no idea who you are!!!), you should ensure that your first responder skills are up-to-date too!

Did you know that people of all ages (adults, children, infants), now should receive the same ratio of compressions to breaths? (The guidelines used to vary.) Did you know that you can now administer an epipen to someone in anaphylactic shock? You might want to learn how to operate one of those puppies! Did you know that First Aiders can now use defibrillators on people experiencing cardiac arrest? You can now learn how to use these devices as well!

Get thee to a First Responder course!

We totally lucked out with our instructor - she was fantastic, informative, and engaging. If you happen to be in Toronto (or Sudbury), I can happily recommend this organization for training. But there are also the Red Cross, St. John's Ambulance, etc. Just go!