First Aid weekend– Pilanesberg: 21-23 July 2023

DAY 1

We arrived at Potokwane on Friday afternoon and settled down at 19:00 to meet our lecturer for the weekend, Dave Nel from Turtle Life Support, who is also an Honorary Officer in his spare time.  Dave is extremely passionate about first aid and loves sharing his knowledge and experiences with people. Dave started off with the Introduction to First Aid.  It was quite a cold evening, so it wasn’t long before majority of the group went to bed.                    

On Saturday morning, we all arrived at the Education Centre, where Dave was assisted by Sister Monica Grové, who is an ICU nurse during the day and an Honorary Officer in her spare time.  The day consisted of lectures and practical applications.  Dave explained the legalities around First Aid and the importance of self-rescue to ensure our safety by first putting on gloves before doing anything else.  We learnt that when an emergency occurs, to first check for any Hazards, then say Hello to check for consciousness, obtain authorisation before jumping in and helping a person, get the history of what happened and make the call for help.  Dave also shared the emergency number 112.  This is a free call to emergency services. Dave showed us how to open the airway for a person to assist with breathing. We were then shown how to apply CPR and, if the person is not breathing, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.  Once the person is breathing, we were taught how to easily turn the person into the recovery position, no matter how light or heavy they are.  Dave also demonstrated CPR for babies. We had lots of fun bandaging up our “patients” or shall I say our “victims”. After a great day of learning, we went back to camp to have a relaxing braai and a good night’s sleep.

On Sunday morning, we once again made our way to the Education Centre, where we learnt about snake bites, ingesting poison and burns.  Dave once again shared with us of who to contact in the event of a snake bite or accidental poisoning,  where anyone can obtain guidance in the event of an emergency. We learnt about the various levels of burns and the treatment thereof.

Apart from learning vital skills for first aid in any emergency, we had an enjoyable weekend and hope to return for more soon!

ED’s Note: Thanks to team Rocky Slopes for giving an insight into the First Aid training module, and congratulations to all the Bushveld Mosaic students who now are the proud holders of a Level 2 First Aid certificate from Turtle Life Support