What is a first aid certificate?
A First Aid Certificate is a certificate that allows you to provide First Aid treatment to anyone who needs assistance during a medical emergency or event. This can be at home, the office, or any public area. One of the crucial components is to have a valid accredited First Aid certificate due to the legal requirements of the OHS Act in South Africa.
Having a valid accredited First Aid Certificate also assists with ensuring that a company becomes Health and Safety compliant along with other Health and Safety related courses that need to take place to be seen as compliant with the OHS Act. First Aid consists of various components that are part of the Medical Industry that are often changed because of medicine changing daily which is why there is an expiry date of 3 years. Every 3 years, First Aid Training needs to be completed in order to keep up with the medical changes in the industry and within the emergency medical services.
As a First Aider, you are the First person on a scene to assist and Aider means you fix the injured which is how the word First Aider came about. The purpose of First Aid is to provide medical assistance to those who may need it. Learning first aid is a life skill that you may need to put to use at any given time as we don’t know when someone may need medical assistance. Knowing how to correctly apply your knowledge and skills of first aid may be the difference between saving and losing a life.
Why is it important to ensure you have a valid first aid certificate?
First aid is a legal requirement under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and because first aid involves the treatment of a patient there are certain legal requirements that you as a first aider need to keep in mind before administering any medical assistance to any patient. Having a valid and accredited first aid certificate will give you the first aider that peace of mind to know that you are allowed to assist or treat any injured person providing that the sick or injured person has given you consent to treat or assist them.
What is the right way to obtain a valid first aid certificate?
If you would like to attend a first aid course you will have to make sure that the company you are approaching to provide you with the first aid training has the correct accreditation as first aid is a legal requirement. The company providing the first aid training must be fully accredited by the primary SETA responsible for first aid training, this will be the Health and Welfare Seta (HWSETA) as well as the Department of Employment and Labour. Always remember to ask for the company’s current accreditation certificates from both governing bodies.
The importance of accredited first aid training.
Because first aid involves the treatment of a sick or injured person you want to make sure that you attend an accredited first aid training session and not a first aid course that is presented to you by someone who has no accreditation or proper training manuals, training aids, training material, and training location. Absolute Health Services is an accredited Health and Safety Training Company registered with the HWSETA and DoEL. In order to get this accreditation, the company has to comply with the strict rules and regulations from both governing bodies.
A valid and accredited first aid certificate is always valid for a period of 3 years and this validity period is prescribed by the DoEL.
Assisting you with obtaining a valid first aid certificate
At Absolute Health Services, we pride ourselves in supplying the best training we can possibly provide in order for our clients to be well trained by our BAA (Basic Ambulance Assistant) paramedics who are our accredited first aid instructors. We take pride in our offices and ourselves to provide friendly and professional services for many accredited Health and Safety Courses which includes First Aid.
We are passionate about our First Aid as we believe it is one of the most crucial qualifications to have around to assist those who need it as we see First Aid as a lifesaving intervention and all humans have the right to life. In your First Aid NQF Level 1 training session the following topics will be covered:
- Introduction and basic principles of first aid and emergency scene management.
- Terminology, positioning, elementary anatomy, and Physiology.
- Workplace preparedness, safety, emergency scene, and patient assessment. (primary and secondary survey)
- Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Choking. (Adult, child and infant CPR & Choking)
- Bleeding, wounds and burns.
- Head, spinal, chest, abdominal, pelvic and fracture injuries. (Trauma injuries)
- Environmental emergencies, near drowning, bites & stings, and poisoning.
- First aid treatment procedures for medical emergencies and shock management. (Asthma, epilepsy, Stroke, diabetes, Heart Attack)
- Triage, record keeping and emergency carry methods
The duration of the course is 2 ½ days and the delegates will have to complete a final theory and practical assessment in order to be found competent before they will receive their valid accredited first aid certificate.
Our first aid course is aligned to SAQA Unit Standard 119567 which prescribes the duration and content for our first aid course.
