First Aid & Health

Ouch! ... How many times have you heard of someone spraining their ankle simply by stepping off the gutter, or tripping down the stairs?  It's surprisingly common in our urban environment where it's easy to hop a taxi to the nearest Medical Centre or call an Ambo for serious stuff.

Out in the wild places that we love it's not so easy!

That's why it's important to travel in a group in the bush and to have good First Aid training.  

First Aid Subsidies

SBW strongly encourages all members (not just leaders) to be trained in First Aid and to keep these skills up to date. 

First Aid training subsidy 

In order to further encourage training and leadership in the Club, and to make it easier for Members to obtain and upgrade their first aid qualifications, the Committee in January 2012 approved the following enhanced incentives: 

Members

• The Club will reimburse the cost of a two-day Senior First Aid certificate, such as Apply First Aid, or a one-day Re-certification course, for members who have undertaken a minimum of 7 programmed activity days in the previous 12 months. This represents a reduction from the previous 10 such activities.
• The Club will also allow new Members to count the days they did as a Prospective towards the 7 days. 

Leaders

The Club will reimburse:

• The cost of a Senior First Aid certificate, such as Apply First Aid, or the cost of a one-day recertification, for all activity leaders, Leaders are defined as members who have led a minimum of one trip in the previous 12 months and have submitted a trip for the next program. 
• The cost of a two-day remote area first aid certificate, such as Remote Area First Aid (RAFA) for all activity leaders. Note a pre-requisite for this course is that participants hold a current Senior First Aid Certificate. 

Members and leaders who wish to claim reimbursement should keep a copy of their course registration and results, and send an electronic copy to treasurer@sbw.org.au and also to the Skills Enhancement Secretary skillenhancement@sbw.org.au. 

The following websites are provided for your reference: 

Bushwalkers Wilderness Rescue Squad - First Aid Courses (highly recommended, specific to bushwalking)

Red Cross College

St John Ambulance

In addition, check out St Johns First Aid Fact Sheets which have good information on many different situations, including:

• DRSABCD Action Plan / Resuscitation
• Bites and stings Quick Guide
• Burns and scalds
• Choking adult / child (over 1 year)
• Fractures and dislocations
• Heart attack
• Heat-induced conditions
• Poisoning
• Severe bleeding
• Shock
• Snake bite
• Spider bites
• Sprains and strain

Ticks