"Show" for first aid -- ideas please

[Laurie]

My husband and I have a debate going, friendly, but nevertheless you can help us to settle it. Since I'm home more often, I am the one who does reviews with our own son when he learns new things for advancement. My husband has begun working with some of the boys during troop meetings. Here's the issue: I say "show" means they need to actually show what they'd do rather than to talk about it. He says that (1) no other leader makes them show things and (2) he doesn't think one *can* show some things. First aid is a prime example. Our son thought this discussion was hysterically funny, and he jumped right in saying there's no way he could show anyone how to do simple first aid. I love a challenge, so I told him that I just cut my finger and needed help. He tried to tell me and I said I needed first aid for my wound, not a discussion Then I was bit by a poisonous snake and suffered from sunburn--all in the space of a few minutes. He laughed a lot, felt quite silly, but he did it. He was puzzled though: why bother? I asked him if he remembered what he DID or what he TALKED about. He got the point, and he's 11, but my husband is still not convinced. Now, I look at the printed word "show" and figure that's pretty clear. Am I wrong? And if I'm right, the most important thing here is the HOW of demonstrating. Ideas are welcomed. We've both been trained and are continuing in training, but this has not been covered.

[scoutingagain]

Laurie,

 

I certainly don't have the credentials of others on the forum, but to me "show" means show or demonstrate, not discuss, describe, tell or write, etc. It also does not mean memorize, master, or show upon demand.

 

I'm sure others with more advancement savy will be happy to respond as well.

 

SA

 

[NJCubScouter]

One of the specific things I remember from some leader training somewhere is that the verbs used in the advancement requirements are all there for a reason, and they are carefully chosen. Discuss means discuss, show means show, demonstrate means demonstrate, and so on. My interpretation of "show" as opposed to "demonstrate" is that if the requirement says "show" first aid for a cut, you can "pretend" to wash the cut and you can put on a "pretend" band aid, but you can't just talk about washing it and putting on a band aid. Now, there is a certain amount of common sense to be applied here. I wouldn't actually make a boy pretend to wash, unless I thought there were some question that he knew how to do it. As long as I see that the boy knows what to do, "show" is satisfied, in my opinion. In other words, some amount of "acting" is sufficient to "show."

 

This is all my opinion and my understanding. Does anyone disagree with this?

[acco40]

You hit the nail on the head. Some requirements do specifically state to show, demonstrate and/or tell.

 

"Demonstrate how to whip and fuse the ends of a rope." - A Scout would need to actually whip and fuse the ends of rope to complete this requirement.

 

"Explain the rules of safe hiking, both on the highway and cross-country, during the day and at night." - A Scout would need to vebalize the rules to complete this requirement. Note, it doesn't say he needs to memorize them!

 

"Repeat from memory and explain in your own words the Scout Oath, Law, motto, and slogan." - A Scout would need to verbalize the Oath, Law, motto and slogan with no aids.

 

In short, do what the requirements says! How simple.

 

 

 

[Laurie]

Our son was actually getting frustrated at what he calls "memory work" in respect to first aid among other things. This is not how I view advancement. IMO, it is the practice of something that helps it to stick and that over time should help develop skills. So, no ripping open bandaids, but maybe having a first aid kit handy, pulling out what is needed (a wrapped bandaid would be fine), and talking as pretending to do something would be ok? Am I on track? I'm thinking of the boys here, truly, and I can't imagine it can be fun to sit and talk about stuff that you should show or demonstrate, nor would it be as productive a time.

[Bob White]

Laurie,

As others have clearly explained "show" means show.

 

But it's important to look at the bigger picture here and First-Aid is a perfect example.

 

Even something as simple as treating a cut needs to be done correctly or the injury can easily worsen. There are different bandages for different body parts and they apply in specific ways. Can the scout select and apply the bandage correctly? That cannot be determined simply through oral explanation.

 

When the cut is washed does the scout know how to clean it. You'd be surprised by the number of people who want to use hot water, but once the skin surface is broken underlying tissue far more sensitive to heat and can be damaged by incorrect washing. Did the scout use cold water?

 

The other reason for actually doing the first aid treatment is that in a real emergency, time matters. The faster you can treat the injured the better chance you have of minimizing the harm. A scout needs to not only know what to do but how to do it correctly and quickly.

 

Finally, scouts need to experience the environment of a trauma injury. They don't happen the way it looks in the book. Rarely will someone sit down beside you and say "I think I broke my arm right here, can you splint it, put it in a sling and call for help for me".

 

Scouts need to be able to identify a person in need, make a reasonable assumption as to the injuries, prioritize them, treat them, and get help in a variety of situations.

 

Making this interesting for scouts is what separates good scouting and great scouting.

 

I recommend that the troops Instructors contact local emergency services and get on the Internet to learn about Moulage (trauma simulation).

 

On our last campout, while we taught trauma first aid to the New Scout Patrol, the other scouts were in another room creating realistic injuries on each other for the New Scout patrol to treat. even after we told them that everything they were about to see was fake, and made possible by make up, their eyes and hearts nearly popped out of them when the SPL came in the room. He was pale an disoriented as he walked in with a steel rod apparently thrust through his upper arm with blood spilling out.

 

The New Scouts panicked, not only could they not remember things they had learned just minutes before, but no one even thought to call for help. And that's what real life is like. Just being able to recite first aid is not enough. Unless people are thoroughly trained and practiced it is likely that they will freeze up when they are needed the most.

 

Moulage can be used to inexpensively recreate almost any injury from a paper cut or blister to third degree burns and compound fractures.

 

Here is just one website to get you started.

http://www.whatcomcountyems.com/pdfs/BASIC%20MOULAGE.pdf

 

Happy Scouting

Bob White

[Fat Old Guy]

" Now, I look at the printed word "show" and figure that's pretty clear."

 

I used to think show meant "Demonstrate" but not too long ago I was told that isn't true in a Scouting context. Go figure.

[NJCubScouter]

Bob, as to the SPL staggering with the steel rod through his arm, bleeding, all I can say is:

 

(1) Wow, and

 

(2) Forget the New Scout Patrol, I'd be curious to see how a bunch of adult leaders, all trained in first aid, would react to the identical situation. I have a suspicion that in many troops, their reaction would not precisely match "E.R."

 

(3) Same as (2) but with a bunch of the most experienced youth, Eagle and Life, all with First Aid and Emergency Preparedness MB. Again, the reaction might be something other than "textbook" and I wonder whether this group would score a bit higher on the "don't panic" scale as the adults.

 

To tell you the truth I am not sure how well I would do if I thought it was real. I'd like to think I would be cool, calm and collected, but I don't know...

[Bob White]

That's a good point NJ. My experience has been that, except in the most basic injury cases, most people will panic unless well trained and frequently practiced .

 

Case in point. I was a department manager for a large discount store back in the early 80s. The store manager (an Eagle Scout)came up to me quitely one day, handed me a very small first aid kit and said I was needed in the warehouse.

 

As I entered I saw my friend, the warehouse manager lying partially twisted in a pool of blood. Eight other adults were present. Two of them vomitting, 6 of them crying, they thought (as did I at first glance) that he was dead.

 

The first thing I did was ask "who called the ambulance?" No one had. In the time it took for him to get injured, have a crowd gather, find the store manager, have him decide to get me, and for me to get to the scene, at least 5 minutes had gone by and no one had even called the ambulance. The kicker was he was lying 8 ft from a telephone.

 

He was alive by the way. It turns out that he had fallen about 20 ft. off of the top shelf in the warehouse. He hit and bounced off of 2 more shelves on the way to the concrete floor. Those hits broke his arm and a leg but slowed him down enough that the landing didn't kill him, but he did have a concussion and bleeding head wound.

 

While one person called 911 I had another wait outside to direct the ambulance to us. I had one person kneel and straddle the victims head with his knees to stabilize him in case there was a neck injury. He also held a compress to his head to stop the bleeding. I worked on the compound leg fracture to stop the bleeding and had another manager begin collecting a report from an employee that witnessed the fall. The store manager contacted the family and told them what hospital we were transporting him to. All this took less than ten minutes and the patient was in the ambulance and being taken to the hospital.

 

That is why practice is important. Time matters. A scout neeeds to be able to stay calm and get the job done as quickly as possible. Had it not been for my scout training I am sure I would have been one of the ones crying over my friends body.

 

Telling how to do first aid is not enough, not only must the scout show how to respond but, he must be shown what the real injury will look like and the emotional stress that must be ignored in order to be effective.

 

 

[Laurie]

Thank you so much. I've been trained in first aid and CPR, but it's been awhile and some is fresh, most is not. At the top of my list of things to do is take a first aid course; Powwow offers one this week and I'm on the list. Having been injured and in accidents, and having worked in a hospital as a volunteer to see if this would be a good field for me, I can't stress the emotional impact of any first aid related item enough. It is, and Bob you said it well, imperative that we know how to do what needs to be done without panic. Discussion won't cut it. Thanks for the practical ideas and for the reasons behind "show" in this area. You've made a good case that I look forward to sharing. By the way, my husband is standing over my shoulder grinning, saying ok that he's got to actually see the boys do things

[NJCubScouter]

Laurie, I'm guessing that your husband did not expect the answer to the question to include boys with their arms impaled on a steel rod or Bob's apparently-dead co-worker and a True Story of Scouters in Action. (Do they still have that in Boy's Life?)

[Bob White]

Oh NJ, the steel rod was just the first one. We had third degree burns, compound fractures (you should see how much an arm with a chicken bone sticking out of a mound of puddy covered in Karo syrup with red food coloring looks like a compound fracture). Then there was the shards of glass in the face, as well as some simple blisters, bee stings, poison ivy, bloody nose, etc.

[Twocubdad]

That's all a terrific way to teach more advanced first aid, but I'm reviewing Readyman with my Webelos II den with an eye toward the Tenderfoot requirements. For tenderfoot, they are required to know first aid for minor burns, cuts and scratches, blisters, stings, ticks, nosebleed and frostbite. Not much blood and gore there to get things going. The Readyman requirements are actually a little more exciting, adding rescue breathing, severe bleeding, and heart attack. We didn't pull out the ketchup, but did get involved with the rescue breathing. Still, all-in-all, it's more classroom work that hands-on.(This message has been edited by Twocubdad)

[txscoutdad]

Our troop has done training like BW's on several occasions. I remember once having a hypothermia "victim" sitting there with one after another of the patrols discussing the syptoms but no one doing anything for the victim. Knowledge does not equal action.

I had one real life experience one time involving spilled bacon grease onto the leg of a Scout. I was obverving a Scout cooking for sign off when the pan fell of the lightweight stove one Feb. morning. I quickly got the trousers pulled down off the lad and instructed his patrol to pour water on the leg till it felt cool (poor guy said he did not know if it was still burning he was too cold to tell). After making sure the essentals were attended to, I turned to another Scout and asked him if he was trained in First Aid for a burn, he said he knew it but had never preformed it. Told him to do it just like it says in the book.

Be able to preform it, not just know it.

Like the Heimlich maneuver, you show the postions but you do not demonstrate.

Curtis

[ScouterPaul]

Bob White

Thanks. That's the type of information I hope to see on this forum.