What to Teach Your Teenager About First Aid

Nobody knows when they might be confronted by a serious emergency of almost any kind. Most of us take it for granted that accidents will happen and that we need to be ready for them. I guess we just assume that a professional will get there and take care of the problem. Few of us even think this far ahead. For those of us who have faced a major medical emergency we know that first aid is something you need to know and not just the professional that comes to help you. Even a few basic techniques practiced at the right moment could seriously lessen the harm done to a person that you care about, if it doesn’t save their life. First aid is critical so learn about it and teach your kids about it. Don’t rely on a high school or middle school health teacher to teach them about this critical subject. Obviously depending on the age of your children you need to teach them in different ways. A preschooler probably only needs to know how to recognize a serious situation and call the authorities. Teaching them much more could actually be quite difficult. With older children in elementary school you want to explain the basics of what to do with serious cuts, burns, or broken bones. You probably could also teach an older elementary school age kid how to perform CPR or what to do in the event of someone going into shock. With a teenager or high school student you can really start to teach more significant first aid. There isn’t much that you would teach an adult that you would not teach a teenager. However, you also need to realize that most teenagers are not adults. They don’t have the emotional or practical skills that you might. While you can teach them the skills this does not mean that they will be able to implement them successfully.

Teach your children First Aid basics.

The first thing to teach teenagers about first aid is that you should always call 911 when you are in a major emergency situation. This is the first step after you have taken a look at the situation and seen that there is a serious problem. After the teenager has done this then you should teach them to apply regular first aid. Teach them the basics of applying pressure to open, bleeding wounds, keeping a person in shock warm, and not moving someone with a spinal injury. Teach them to practice appropriate CPR and the Heimlich Manuever. Make sure that they know how to make a splint and also how to appropriately bandage a wound. This is important because teenagers often go on camping trips or sneak off together when they shouldn’t. If they are alone and in a place far from good medical attention they will need to know how to help their friends themselves.

One of the things to emphasize with teenagers is keeping their cool. Sometimes teenagers lose their cool easily in a tough situation. They often like to play tough but when it comes down to it they don’t always know what to do in a real emergency situation. Tell them that they will need to remain calm and think things through. Make sure that teenagers don’t leave without some means of communicating or contacting adults.
Assume that your child’s high school has not taught them sufficient first aid. Take it upon yourself to teach them what they need to know. You never know if doing so will make the difference of saving their life or the life of someone else you love.