If you work in childcare then you definitely need first aid training in order to keep or obtain a job. But you can’t just do a “basic” or “standard” first aid course like a lot of people can do if they work in an office for example.
There are very good reasons why you need to do a specialised course in First Aid if you work in Childcare.
For a start, children have very different bodies and therefore very different needs than adults should they become ill or injured while under your care in a childcare centre. This is even more true for very young children like toddlers and even babies.
Also, children attending childcare may have allergies or suffer from asthma or other medical conditions and so you need to be trained on how to handle those as well.
The industry standard course, and the only one that is considered a legitimate qualification for a child care worker, is HLTAID012 – Provide First Aid in an Education and Care Setting. (As you can tell by the course title this is also the course that teachers do and also those who work in Aged Care too.)
The course covers a lot of First Aid essentials such as handling choking, bleeding, burns, insect and snake bites, minor skin injuries, eye and ear injuries, sprains, strains & dislocations, etc
It also teaches you what to do if a child swallows something poisonous, goes into shock or becomes unconscious.
You learn the correct procedures for performing CPR on a child and an adult and you are also trained in how to use an AED, which is Automated External Defibrillation device, that is vital for anyone who suffers cardiac arrest. (And yes, this does happen to children.)
Importantly the course also covers what you need to do if a child has an allergic reaction, which is becoming more common these days, despite the very best efforts of everyone in the childcare industry.
You are also trained in what to do if the child has an anaphylactic reaction, which is much more severe than just an allergic reaction. In this case the child can have a very fast and very severe reaction to an allergen that can lead to their airways being so severely blocked they cannot breathe. In a very short time they can go into shock, have a cardiac arrest and die if they are not given the correct treatment promptly so this is very definitely a life-saving skill every childcare worker needs.
Additionally, the course covers specialised training for a child who suffers from Asthma as this too can become a very serious event if the child has an asthma attack while under your care. Knowing exactly how to handle this is again a vitally important life-saving skill.
As you can tell it’s a very comprehensive course that provides a very high level of training for childcare workers, teachers, aged care workers, etc
To book your Accredited Childcare First Aid training course with Melbourne’s best trainers on a weekday or a Saturday please visit https://www.resultsfirstaid.com/courses