Spectator Safety First Aid Level 2 (VTQ)
Course Content
- Course Introduction
- Scene Safety and Initial Assessment
- Fears of First Aid
- Asking permission and consent to help
- What emergency equipment and professional help is available at events?
- The EMS at large events - a medical professional's answer
- Calling the Emergency Services
- What3Words - location app
- Alternative emergency phone numbers
- How are radios used by stewards?
- Scene Safety
- Keeping safe as a steward
- Chain of Survival
- DR ABC and the ABCD'S
- Using gloves
- How to use face shields
- Hand Washing
- The Recovery position
- BSi First Aid Kit
- CPR - Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
- AED
- Choking
- Shock and Fainting
- Cuts and Bleeding
- Injuries and Illnesses
- Course Summary
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AED units all come with a battery. Now, it will either be a separate battery or a battery that's combined with the pads. With the HeartSine units, we got a battery pack here, there's also the pad cartridge, so when you replace them, you replace both. It is very good 'because you sure don't want to replace the batteries after you've used the AED unit for real, so this means you have to. You see the terminals here, it's an integral battery; there's no maintenance on this at all, it's either working or it's not working. So, what will happen is the AED unit itself will have an audio alarm and it will beep to say that there's a problem. Also, when you turn it on and do a self-test, it will come up with a verbal warning saying that the batteries are low or batteries need replacing. With the HeartSine, this has a separate battery cartridge and it just slides into the units, and you have the main terminals here. Look out for manufacturing dates on the batteries because they will all have a maximum time you can use them for, even if you've never used the battery. The reason for that is the unit is always using a very small amount of electricity in the self-test it's doing every week or every month, but also when you open the unit up and do manual tests on the unit. Each one those times, you are using a little a bit of electricity. When it comes towards the end of its shelf life, that still can be used. If you don't have a brand-new battery, by all means, use the unit even if the unit is saying low battery or indicating a low battery alarm, still use it because the low battery alarm does cut in quite soon. So, keep the old battery in the unit and keep the unit ready to use and don't be afraid to use the AED unit even if it's coming up with a low battery alarm. When a new battery comes in, that's one we'll look at now is the iPad battery. It will come in an outer protective case and all you do with this is you simply just take it out of the packet. With the unit, sometimes you'll find it has these crystals that just keeps it dry, these you just need to throw these away safely. And again, with the iPad, you have a sealed unit so already it slides straight into the AED. On the end, you have the terminals here and that unit will just slide into it and you just replace it. As far as getting rid of the old AED batteries with all of these, you need to dispose of them correctly. With the life pack, it has a slightly different battery because you have the main battery. And also, when you buy new pads, you have a supplementary battery. And this just slides into the side so you just pop it in here and slide it until it locks in place. The idea is that yes, you've got the main battery there, but this will also give a supplementary top-up. If you have had to use the AED, you've at least given it an extra charge but also if you're replacing pads, you're giving that extra top-up of the battery. The final type of battery we're going to look at is the Zoll. With the Zoll unit, you take the cover off the back, and inside you'll see all the small batteries in there. Now the way this has been built is that the batteries are available from any store, you don't have to necessarily buy it from the manufacturer. These are run with Duracell’s, it's what the manufacturer recommends, so it's always a good idea to use the batteries that a manufacturer would recommend. They all have independent batteries here. If one of these batteries was to fail, the unit will still work because it's actually taking power for half of them so you only need half of these batteries to actually function. With the Zoll unit, when you put new batteries in it, you got a small button at the top here, you must push that. What that does is it resets the unit so the AED unit itself knows that you just put brand new batteries in, so it knows how to do the testing feature. With this, you just unclip the battery out, and then you can just clip that back in again. Make sure it fits home and then just double check that they're all in level before you then put the cover back on the unit.
The batteries in AED units are mostly a solid disposable pack, there are some exceptions that use 10 small batteries. AED units are all battery powered and never mains or rechargeable. The HeartSine AED units have a battery built into the pad cartridge which makes it easy to ensure the unit is always ready to use.
The shelf life of the batteries varies from 2 to 5 years. Make sure when you check an AED that the batteries are all charged and able to be used. If there is a problem or they need replacing, the AED will alert you to a beep or light. Even when the unit says the batteries need replacing, you can still use the unit in an emergency.