I honestly believe that my ability to act quickly and calmly in both a first aid emergency and within my own workplace stems from my time working at a yellow and red branded fast food restaurant chain!

One shift that still clearly stands out in my mind was probably about 6.45am one morning – I was in charge of the kitchen and we discovered that the grill (quite important if you want to cook meet at high temperatures!) was not on, 15 minutes before we were due to open (and it needed at least 30 minutes to warm up – in those days anyway!)

Being a young manager, my immediate thoughts turned to what could be broken and who more senior could I report it to. As I did report it, the shift running manager went quickly back to basics – immediately checking the plug, which was not in!

I learnt valuable lessons from working in McDonalds. I think it may have been ever since that day – whenever something has not quite been working out I have tried to take a step back, re-trace steps and sometimes even start from scratch.

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The bizarre thing is, this is actually the first thing we teach when we deliver First Aid training. Before stepping in and helping in an emergency situation we should STOP and check for any dangers. Sometimes it is both safer and more effective to wait until we are given authorisation to step in and help and to not jump in too soon and try to be a ‘Super First Aider’. In a factory environment where chemicals are on-site for example, casualties would be brought out to the first aid treatment area wherever possible.

This does also remind me of a Community Responder incident local to me; two Responders arrived on scene to a Care Home facility. Through the window, they spotted one person laying unconscious on the floor. A few steps later, they saw a second person laying on the floor. At this point the Responders stopped and returned to their car, closing their windows and blocking any further access. The unconscious persons had inhaled an odourless chlorine gas, if the Responders had proceeded, they would have also fallen to the floor – hopeless to help any further (all persons fully recovered I am pleased to report)!

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In current times I think information overload can often be present. It is for this reason that for all of our half/one and two day courses, I try to give delegates a maximum of two ‘simple’ acronyms to remember for the whole duration and beyond. To help keep things simple and allow us to perform basic first aid well and repeatedly well, I champion the acronym ‘DRAB’.

            Danger

            Response

            Airway

            Breathing

If you observe any experienced first aider, any Technician or Paramedic, Health Care Professional, Nurse or Doctor, you will always see them going back to basics and doing the basics well. A saying from my college years always stays with me…

…practice doesn’t make perfect… PERFECT practice makes perfect

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I am going to leave you with one more ‘back to basics’ to ponder over…

… If you EVER have any gut feeling that maybe someone is upset, vacant, distressed, ‘removed’ from our current time and space, maybe they are thinking of dying by suicide.

Maybe they aren’t however, they may appreciate that someone cared enough to engage with them and check? Samaritans have a saying “small talk saves lives”. I absolutely advocate this!

If you ever see anyone and you ‘wonder’… are they OK? Are they thinking of suicide? Are they distressed and look alone? Literally just go back to basics and ask them one of two things maybe:

1) do you have the time please?

or

2) do you think it looks like it might rain?

Your only job here is to bring them back to the here and now, engage them in conversation with a real person, making real eye contact and giving a real smile and real empathy.