Barbara Latkowski
Caledonia Courier
Nechako Valley Community Services along with BC Emergency Health Services/Community Paramedicine held another first aid training course for parents in Fort St. James.
“This is all about learning first aid basics that every parent should know,” said Joan MacGillivray, community action coordinator with Nechako Valley Community Services.
“We’ve had great feedback from our other two sessions, so we are continuing to offer them,” MacGillivray.
The free training was held on Jan. 17 at the Nak’azdli Daycare and the session was instructed by John Ramones, a community paramedic in Fort St. James.
The Community Paramedicine Initiative in British Columbia is all about improving access to health care in rural and remote communities by expanding the role of qualified paramedics.
Community paramedics provide basic health-care services in partnership with local health care providers by complimenting and supporting services by offering home visits including older adults living with chronic conditions including congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes.
But a big part of their job also includes being able to provide education and training within the communities in which they work.
“I feel it is very important to promote clinics and workshops like this first aid course,” Ramones said.
“For parents, it’s always more difficult to access a situation when it is your own family member. Panic sets in and it’s always more difficult to treat your loved ones. This is to help make you feel more comfortable.”
And MacGillivray couldn’t agree more as parents shared their own personal medical mishaps.
“It’s so important to know proper first aid procedures, to be more comfortable with them and mostly it’s all about having fun today.”
About 7 participants took part in the training as they compressed and practised breathing on their assigned infant and youth dolls to practise their newly learned or refreshed skills.
Training included information on: choking, drowning, bandaging, CPR and burns, fractures, asthma, bleeding and allergies.