Blog / May 31st, 2023
Training spotlight
1st Response is Girlguiding’s first aid training and is completed by working through an eLearning and a training session of roughly 6 hours. The training maybe face to face or a mixture of face to face and webinar (live online training). Trainings are organised locally, normally by your county, and may use a Girlguiding trainer or an external trainer. If you are looking for a session, check with your county or look on our region and county calendar to see if there are any sessions in neighbouring counties that would welcome you.
If you hold a valid full external first aid qualification you may already have the training you need to provide first aid support in guiding. The Girlguiding website tell you more. Currently in Anglia, external courses need to be verified by your local commissioner using the 1st Response syllabus checklist. This can be a little tricky for commissioners to do and we want to support you as much as possible, so we have implemented a new role of first aid verifier and have appointed five people across the region to provide much needed support. Once the relevant pages on the learning platform have been created and tested, our verifiers will use this to approve new external first aid courses. In the meantime, if you or your local commissioner need support, speak to your county or the region team.
One of the common medical emergencies that we might experience in our units is an allergic reaction. Leaders should work with girls and their parents or carers to complete an adjustment plan for young members with allergies. Many of the questions may feel irrelevant, however, the questions on early warning signs and what to do in an emergency could save their life. Just fill in as much as you can and commit to reviewing it regularly. Ask if there is any critical advice from medical professionals or allergy consultants and make a note of it as part of your planning. That way you’ll feel confident to deal with an emergency should one arise.