HSE has revised the Emergency First Aid and First Aid at Work syllabuses following the changes to the Resuscitation Council UK guidelines on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in October 2015. This means that all workplace first aiders must be trained to use an automated external defibrillator (AED) from the 31st of December 2016. The guidelines now state that the management of a casualty requiring CPR is to request an AED.
These changes mean that when CPR is being demonstrated and practised, students must be taught how to use an AED, as that is part of the new CPR sequence as of the beginning of 2017. At Centaur we have been incorporating the AED into our chain of resuscitation for some time but will now go into detail showing delegates how to safely use the AED, the correct placement of pads and how to follow the AED voice prompts. This will be practiced on a manikin so students have knowledge of what to do in a real life situation, rather than just having the process explained to them. Centaur already has AED training defibrillators, which allows students to practice without actually having any electric current flowing through the pads so there is no chance of an accident.
The requirement for a defibrillator within the workplace is still down to the individual employers needs and the new requirement for training does not necessarily mean businesses need to buy one. You also do not need to retrain any existing first aiders within your workplace before the end of their three year certificate as they will automatically gain this knowledge on the next first aid course they attend.
If you are interested in attending one of our Emergency First Aid at Work courses, our First Aid at Work course, or our First Aid at work Requalification course, please follow the appropriate links. The dates for 2017 are already up on our website if you would like to attend a course containing the new syllabus. We also offer all three of these courses to be held at a time and venue to suit your needs if you have a group of staff who require training. You can view these courses under our courses at your location page.