First Aid during a pandemic

So as a requirement of my coaching insurance, I have to keep my first aid current.  That was a bit of a problem when it expired in March *sigh* but now that we’re in Phase 3, it’s an option again.  I did “blended” learning which means all the theory was online.  For me this was *awesome* as it took a fraction the time doing it in class would’ve ;).   Might not have been as useful for someone new to it or who doesn’t learn well through reading (there were videos too but I didn’t have the patience for that).  But for me it meant as fast as I could read and pass the tests I was done.  No listening to other people’s endless questions - which is an act of patience sometimes, let’s be honest.

Then the practical in class was only half a day.  A couple things we couldn’t do because they require a partner and it was strictly hands off due to covid, but credit to the woman instructing - she did a great job within the rules she had to follow.

The dummies have improved since I last did it - more pressure required for CPR and felt more real (well I’m sure it’s the same amount that was always required but the previous ones took a lot less to push down).  And what definitely wasn’t real but was a super learning aid was the feedback lights on the dummy’s shoulder that tracked speed and pressure.  So that was cool.

Sadly my dummy was horribly ill and required a throat and lung transplant before we could even start CPR.  Lol that made me laugh.  He was definitely not having a good day.

2 person CPR / AED was moderately entertaining as we all had to stay in our social distancing squares.  So the theory was while we each had a dummy, pretend we were working on the same one.  Some pair could *not* get that through their heads and it was a riot to watch (eg - you can’t both be doing chest compressions at the same time).  Fortunately I was paired with somebody intelligent so he and I got through it quickly w no issues.

The end exam was beyond painful as they can’t hand out booklets anymore, so the questions were put on the screen one at a time and read to us.  And then, any questions anybody missed were repeated at the end.  I don’t know how it was possible to miss them, but hey - this is the same group who couldn’t figure out how to coordinate using two dummies to simulate one.

Anyways - all in, it was a far less painful approach than it usually is and I’m free for the next 3 years :).  Win.