4 day First Aid at Work Course - Outdoor. London, 24 - 27th March 2009

This week saw Davie down in the capital, doing his 4 day FAW course, a pre-requisite in becoming a FA trainer.

I arrived on Monday to what must be the 'Festival of Dog Shit'. They obviously take this very seriously 'dahn saaarf', because every 100 yards there were various specimens laid out on full display.

Some (a tiny minority) obviously hadn't got the hang of the process and were picking their entries up and bagging them before the judges arrived. Not surprising really because competition for the best display was fierce.

If you read this and live in London... don't even consider buying a dog..

Anyway, rant over, I was there to get a my four day qualification to allow me to do the train the trainer course in two weeks. The 4 day FAW course is externally verified and there was a written exam and 3 practical exams at the end of the week.

I went back to REACT First for this course as a) they are really excellent at creating the pressure of a casualty situation and b) they asked me if I'd be a trainer for them.



After various scenarios and to cut a long story short, I passed and now go for the train the trainer course in 2 weeks.

Course covered the following topics, all handled in a practical and pragmatic way:

Vital Signs – breathing, level of consciousness, temperature, colour
Incident Management – a systematic approach to managing first aid incidents
Airway Management – causes and treatment of unconscious collapse
Breathing Problems - choking
Circulation Problems – Internal bleeding, external bleeding and treatment for shock
Damage – treatment of injury: head, spine, chest, abdomen, pelvis, leg & arm
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
Common Illnesses – angina, heart attack, asthma, diabetes and epilepsy
Burns and Scalds
Poisoning
Awareness of current regulations
Safe best practice
Record keeping – recording accidents, RIDDOR, First Aid kits, disposing safely of clinical waste





Hopefully the festival will be over for my return and the streets returned to usual.



Thanks goes to Charlie at React; a fantastic course held at the Canalside Canoe Centre.

Davie

Esk Pike and Bow Fell, 22 February 2009

Well, it's been a while since we've been to the Lakes, but glad to say they're still there and the mountains are just as we left them.

Rich M, John D and Davie were transported via John's TURDIS (just like a TARDIS, only smaller on the inside) to a busy Seathwaite, although, in the fashion of French tourists, John drove right to the end of the line and parked the Turdis right at the farm.

Way to go Dicko - no staggering back to the car along a mile of road when John's in charge of the wheels!

We had thought about a walk up to Sty Head then over to Pillar, but we managed to talk ourselves out of that and decided on an equally bold move to go over Esk Pike and go for Bow Fell.

It was going to be cold up top: MWIS had informed of 30mph winds and cloud above 600m.

Great!

Throwing on his tracky bottoms and rather fetching Dr Who scarf (bit of a theme going on here) John led us out of Seathwaite and up towards Esk Hause.

There was still a bit of snow about and we made sure to steer towards this at every opportunity (not quite 'up to your chest, Cairngorm snow, a la Ginger - but still great fun...)

When we arrived at Great End, there was a party attempting a grade II, maybe III, winter climb up the first gully. There was still a fair bit of snow being held and they were making hard work of the initial stages.

Definitely one for the Verdes boys.

We got over Esk Pike with little difficulty and Bow Fell was visible through the clag. A quick hack through the boulders and snow fields and we were at the bottom of Bow Fell. While John and Rich scampered to the top, Davie detoured over to have a look at Bow Fell buttress and the slabs.

Awesome! This is definitely going to get a visit soon.

We had our meagre lunch on top of BF; meagre, as the Rheged fuel station was closed and we had to get by on peanuts - except mountain ibis John, who had managed purloin a seemingly endless supply of pork pies.

We descended down Ore gap through bog and snow fields and picked up the path at Angle Tarn, heading back to Esk Hause and then Seathwaite. We took some time to practice timing and pacing and factors that can influence. Well, it kept our minds off the fact that we were puggled.

It's quite sobering really when you look at the nice picture of Langdale below and remember that in the last two weeks 3 people have died in this area.

So remember - even if there is a dusting of snow, a slip is a slip.... so crampons ON and axe OUT.

The fastest ever return from the Lakes was then executed in immaculate style by Dicko and his Turdis - a truly amazing feat of tranportation by the young doctor.

A great day out that had a bit of everything.

Davie