First Aid/Manual of Style
Introduction — Issues in Providing Care — Primary Assessment & Basic Life Support — Secondary Assessment — Circulatory Emergencies
Respiratory Emergencies — Soft Tissue Injuries — Bone & Joint Injuries — Environmental Illness & Injury
Medical Conditions & Poisoning — Advanced Topics — Appendices — Meta content
Terminology
[edit | edit source]- How do we refer to "the injured person"
- We decided to use victim for the book proper, and either victim or patient in the Advanced Topics chapter. Casualty is not used.
- CPR or BLS?
- CPR is used more prominently because that is how the public knows the technique. BLS is acceptable, but should be avoided outside the Advanced Topics chapter.
- C stands for Compressions
- Due to changes introduced in the 2005 standards, C no longer stands for Circulation, but rather for Compressions. This is because there is no circulation check for lay rescuers, and this change in terminology reinforces the new procedures.
Scope & audience
[edit | edit source]The intended audience for this book is people (primarily young people in high school or college/university) who are taking a Standard First Aid with CPR-C course - that is, this book covers only lay rescuer procedures and will not deal with healthcare provider procedures. This is based on an international consensus for training. Where major regional variations (particularly in resuscitation) exist, they should be noted.
Standard First Aid with CPR-C includes:
- Goals of first aid
- Legal implications of first aid (consent, liability and abuse)
- Self-protection
- Anatomy and physiology of ABC priorities
- Assessment (primary & secondary)
- One-rescuer and two-rescuer CPR (adult & child & infant) (complete & summary)
- Obstructed airway: conscious victim (adult & child & infant)
- Obstructed airway: unconscious victim (adult & child & infant)
- Management of bystanders
- Respiratory emergencies: asthma/hyperventilation
- Circulatory emergencies: shock, heart attack/angina, external bleeding, stroke/TIA
- Care of unconscious victim
- Suspected spinal injury
- Environmental emergencies: heat & cold illness
- Bone or joint injury
- Abdominal or chest injury
- Burns
- Facial injury
- Seizure
- Diabetes
- Poisoning
- Critical incident stress management
Spelling & conventions
[edit | edit source]- Canadian English is dominant, and for consistency's sake, should be used whenever possible.
- Language should avoid being overly technical, and should attempt to present analogies or simplified explanations or mnemonics whenever possible. While there is massive amounts of scientific evidence or practical experience behind the reasoning for any given technique, it's usually not necessary to present any of that background information. When explanation is needed, practical reasons are preferred, as they'll be easily remembered, and will help the reader in the practical component of their course.
- There are a series of templates which should be used to highlight key points, etc.
- Images should be used to illustrate concepts wherever practical.