First aid is one of the most useful skills you can have, and at times it can be literally life-saving. Knowing how to react to an accident or an injury can be useful when it comes to sports, traffic, and many other everyday areas of life. In today’s article, we’ll be learning why is first aid important.

How Can First Aid Be Useful?

Having first aid and safety training means that you’re able to properly react to an injury at any moment. This is imperative when we’re talking about traffic, as it’s likely that you’ll come across an accident or even be involved in one during your time on the road.

To be properly prepared when it comes to first aid means to have all the necessary knowledge and skills in medicine. Of course, first aid classes don’t teach actual, in-depth medicine, but rather simplified and most important procedures.

On a practical example: it’s often the instinct of a person involved in a traffic accident to immediately get out of their vehicle.

However, if there was a case of whiplash or if the vehicle rolled onto the side – an experienced person will know not to move. In that scenario, the person could have easily injured their spine and further moving can only deal additional damage.

This is a very important bit of information that doctors are very well aware of, but many people don’t know and they often hurt themselves even more by accident. 

The reach of first aid isn’t confined only to traffic, though. In these classes, you will learn a lot about helping people in their everyday life. What to do if you notice someone’s choking or what to do when someone loses consciousness.

How Important is it to Learn First Aid?

According to doctors, first aid very often makes the difference between life and death. On average, it takes an ambulance about 8 minutes to arrive once you’ve called them.

Many injuries need much less to take a life! According to St John’s Ambulance, 140 000 people die each year in the UK when they could have been saved if anyone had proper first aid training.

This, while undoubtedly a horrifying statistic, goes to show just how important it is for the everyday person to learn first aid.

According to the same statistic; nearly 900 people choke to death each year, 2500 asphyxiate from a blocked airway, and nearly 30 000 die from heart attacks.

Most of these deaths could be prevented if everyone knew how to properly apply first aid.

The situation, however, isn’t good at all, as 59% of people (in the UK) don’t feel confident in their knowledge and skills enough to try and help a person in need – this is the primary reason why so many people stay away when they notice someone needing help.

Shockingly, about 82% of parents that answered a survey admitted that they wouldn’t know what to do with their young children if they were choking or if they stopped breathing.

Where Can You Learn First Aid?

The easiest part of this whole ordeal is actually learning first aid! These classes are readily available in every city and there are many schools and instructors you can book.

Most of the classes aren’t even expensive, and you can also start learning online with YouTube lessons. There are also many things you only need to learn in theory, not practice (for example, what to do with a person who drank antifreeze).

To learn those things, you don’t need to buy into a class, just buy a first aid book online.

First aid courses usually last for a few weeks, depending on the various levels of first aid you need to learn. Some occupations, for example military personnel, require a very high level of first aid preparedness, so these professionals usually take the most in-depth course there is.

However, just learning the basic things can increase the chances of you saving a life one day drastically. Simpler classes usually include learning how to take care of breaks and dislocations, cuts, alcohol poisoning, heart attacks, strokes, losses of consciousness, choking, animal bites, etc.

More complex classes cover saving a drowning person, helping someone in a car accident, taking care of gunshot wounds or stab wounds and even using professional tools when it comes to first aid (tools that first responders use).

These skills are invaluable and it’s impossible to put a price on being able to save someone’s life.