We have been very busy the last few weeks on first aid courses. We are also making good headway on developments for our clients in the next few weeks and for early next year.We are having a new communications system installed over the next few weeks which will improve our service further still. We also have several Tutors starting on our training programme. So, the next few weeks are looking very busy as we are also providing our Hazardous Environment Health and Safety First Aid at Work Courses, Mountain Biking First Aid in Spain and preparing for another season of Wilderness First Aid in Nepal.
News
Wilderness First Aid Expedition Leader 11-14 August
This is the course to book if you are a leader or participant on an overseas expedition. On this course we ensure you have carefully planned your wilderness trip in advance by giving you over twenty years of our experience. You will then be confident and prepared to deal with an incident or evacuation of an ill or injured person. We look at some of the external factors that can delay or even stop rescue of a person and ways to avoid and get round such an occurrence. We will take you through some basic to advanced first aid techniques and will make sure you have the knowledge to put a comprehensive medical kit together that will also survive the environment you are visiting.
We have over 900sq ft of training area totally dedicated to Wilderness First Aid training and access to acres of private land with varied terrain for practical scenarios. Plenty of free parking, free WIFI, easy access to public transport, stacks of outdoor related magazines and books for you to read. An abundance of equipment, mannequins and stretchers for you to use plus experienced and knowledgeable Tutors with experience in rescue teams and on expeditions.
We have been providing first aid and medical skills training for the urban, wilderness and hostile environments since 1997. Previous clients include three successful Everest Expeditions, British Gurkhas Nepal, Combined Cadets Adventurous Training, Force Development Training Centre, Joint Services Adventurous Training, RAF Cranwell, NRDC ITA and Paddle Nepal. We also trained Sanubabu Sunuwar before his epic flight from the summit of Mount Everest last year! Babu and Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa are the National Geographic Adventurers of the year.
By booking with us you are also helping to raise the safety standards in Nepal. We work closely with Paddle Nepal a rafting company to train their staff in Wilderness First Aid and safety standards. We employ a sliding scale of fees to our courses to enable young, potential raft guides the opportunity to gain an international qualification and employment in rafting companies. This enables them to gain experience to then work overseas in Iceland, Europe and Japan and ultimately bring an income to their families. We work extremely hard in Nepal but we love the chance to help out other people!
Team Building for Duke of Edinburghs Award
A productive and muddy day of first aid training and team building with Marple Hall School. The pupils attended as an introduction to first aid and as a build up to being selected for taking part in the Duke of Edinburghs Award. The whole event took place outside. The day started with Dave our full size mannequin who had collapsed with chest pains out in the woods next to our training centre. Luckily our AED (Automated External Defibrillator) was on hand and the pupils took turns in chest compression only CPR and taking direction from the AED (Dave had vomitted and had smashed his teeth when he fell, hence chest compressions only). Next session was treatment of the unconscious casualty. The pupils rapidly picked up the ABC’s and the Safe Airway Position. The last session before lunch covered all the new skills plus treatment of bleeds – our casualty simulation added to the realism.
Thankfully our warm centre is only a minute from the woods! The pupils had learnt so much in a short space of time and were exceptionally well behaved we had the opportunity to let them work on the steep and rugged piece of terrain we use for our Wilderness First Aid Courses. During the morning session the pupils had carried Dave outside on our backboard and then manoevered him back up a slippy slope with some good team work. Because of this I felt confident to show them the correct procedure for moving a live person onto a backboard with head blocks. This was a good build up to the last event of the day.
The pupils were split into two groups with a casualty each. Within 45 minutes they had extracted a badly injured casualty from a Paragliding harness, treated the fractures and immobilised them with neoprene fracture straps, wrapped them in a Blizzard Blanket (Double skinned foil blanket used for hypothermia) and then loaded them onto their teams stretcher. One team had the spider straps, back board and head blocks and the other team used our MIBS MkII stretcher. Considering we had not told them how to use a MIBS stretcher or neoprene splints they did an outstanding job! Part of the excercise was to also use some common sense – hence the lack of explanation.
We had a thoroughly enjoyable day and it was great to see year nines working so well and enthusiastically. Their manners and behaviour were also impeccable. Sandie our Office Manager used to be a teacher and was most impressed by their high standards. Under the wet and muddy conditions we worked in today they are a credit to their school, teachers and parents. We were so impressed we sent them home on the train with certificates of achievement!
Two hours of kit cleaning (I am so glad we have a pressure washer) and we are now ready for tomorrows group.
Job Vacancies
Due to expansion we are looking to employ an administrator to assist our Office Manager, Sandie. We also have vacancies to join our team of First Aid Tutors. We employ Tutors on a full time or part time basis. For administrator role – please call 01433 621484. For the First Aid Tutor role please email us with your interest and we will send out the selection criteria.
New courses and developments at High Peak First Aid
We have the return of our networking events as the trials we ran proved very successful for everyone concerned and the charities we support. We also offer course members the chance to return on the second day of our High Peak First Aid – Wilderness First Aid Course for free! It is not mandatory for you to refresh in the three year period, however we find people like to attend to refresh knowledge and prepare for assessments such as Walking Group Leader – WGL, Basic Expedition Leader Award – BELA, SPA – Single Pitch Award, to name a few. We have a packed year ahead and will keep you posted with regular updates.
