Health & the Body · Foundation

First Aid and CPR

Most emergencies are met first by someone who happens to be there. This course teaches what the main resuscitation and first-aid bodies (the American Heart Association, the Red Cross, the European and UK Resuscitation Councils and ILCOR) currently recommend a bystander do, why, and where they differ: calling for help, checking a casualty, CPR and using an AED, the recovery position, choking, severe bleeding, burns, and the common medical emergencies. It is not a certificate and not a substitute for hands-on training, and it says so; it is the knowledge that makes a practical class, and a real emergency, less frightening.

What you'll learn

• Decide what to do in the first minute of an emergency, from checking for danger to calling your local emergency number on speaker, and state what the call handler needs from you
• Recognise cardiac arrest, including gasping, and state the compression rate, depth and ratio that the 2025 US and UK guidelines give, with the reason for each
• Describe how to use an AED, and explain why every minute before the first shock matters
• Sequence CPR for a child, a baby and a drowned person under US and UK/European guidance, and say where the two differ
• Decide between CPR, the recovery position and naloxone for someone who is unresponsive, and sequence the response to choking and to severe bleeding, including when a tourniquet is recommended
• State the first aid for burns, small wounds and injuries to bones, the head and the spine, and say when each needs a doctor
• Recognise a heart attack, a stroke, anaphylaxis, an asthma attack, a seizure, low blood sugar, poisoning, and heat and cold illness, and state what a bystander does for each
• Say which guideline and year each instruction comes from and how strong its evidence is, and choose the hands-on training that reading can't replace