Guest emz552 Posted September 26, 2002 Report Share Posted September 26, 2002 Hi i'm just a first year @ u of s planning to get into medicine. Can someone provide the following information regarding obtaining your first aid certificate: 1. How do I sign up for the First Aid course? Whom do I contact? How much does it cost? 2. In which year of my 4 year B.Sc. should I take the first aid course? 3. How does the annual renewal of the certificate work? thanks a lot regards, emz552 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted September 26, 2002 Report Share Posted September 26, 2002 I'm not a Sask student, and hopefully one of the moderators will be able to confirm this, but CPR certification seems to be something that is pretty much universal across all the Canadian medical schools. What you need to be certified to is CPR Level C, which teaches you the management of CPR for all three age categories (the protocols vary for each of these): Adults, Children, and Infants. Here's some further info from both the St. John's Ambulance website and the Red Cross website: www.sja.ca/english/health_safety_training/cpr/index.asp www.redcross.ca/english/firstaid/programs/facpr/cpraed.html This is something that is NOT mandatory until you hit medical school generally, but it is something that I think everybody should take out of general knowledge. I don't think there's any excuse for a high school or university student (or any adult for that matter) not to know this stuff. If I had my way, it'd be a mandatory course for both high school and university students! Based on the people that you spend the greatest amount of time with, chances are good that if you need to know CPR, you would be doing it to try to save a family member, or a friend's life. The protocols for CPR change often, and as such, and also because of the need to "refresh" your mind constantly, CPR Level C needs to be re-certified on an annual basis to be kept updated. The Red Cross website states that it should be done every three years, but I think annually is a more appropriate duration. If there's an emergency, you want to have the knowledge down cold so that you react immediately, instead of trying to remember what the next step should be. Our medical class recertifies on a yearly basis, as do most other Canadian schools I suspect. I would go to a reputable first aid company. Your best bet is to call up the local St. John's Ambulance or Red Cross agencies. They'll also be in your local phone book. www.sja.ca/english/offices/sask/saskatoon.asp www.redcross.ca/english/firstaid/contact/index.html Some further information on the first aid courses offered by both companies can be found here: www.sja.ca/english/health_safety_training/family/index.asp www.sja.ca/english/in_the_workplace/courses/index.asp www.redcross.ca/english/firstaid/index.html Just to conclude, this is something that you don't need to take until you get into the thick of medical school. However, in an emergency, it might well be the most important training you have ever taken. You could very well save a life, or at least hold on to it so that emergency first aid providers have the time to reach the scene. If you want to go one step further, I would recommend the Standard First Aid course (which should include CPR Level C, or be easily bundled with it). Not only is it very interesting, but it is extremely practical. You'll learn some practical ways to make slings or splints for arm or leg fractures, learn what to do in the event of an eye injury, etc. Having this on your resume could very well help you land jobs, health-care related or otherwise. It certainly wouldn't hurt to have this as well if you were ever applying for health-care volunteering positions either. www.sja.ca/english/health_safety_training/family/standard.asp www.redcross.ca/english/firstaid/programs/facpr/standard.html You know, I think this is such an important topic (thanks for bringing it up!), that I'm going to duplicate this message in the General Premed forum. I hope that everyone who is interested in medicine will register for one of these two courses. It'll only take you a weekend for the Standard First Aid, and considerably shorter than that for the CPR Level C. Learn this and be ready to save a life. Ian UBC, Med 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kosmo14 Posted September 26, 2002 Report Share Posted September 26, 2002 For the U of S you must provide proof of taking a standard first aid course around the middle of June, after you have been given notice of passing the interview, but before you are accepted. You do not need to take CPR before first year med. because it is a mandatory course that we take in our first month. If you have chosen to take it prior to this, you will still need to recert. in your first month of med school. As Ian has said above, I think it is extremely important for everyone to have taken a standard first aid course and CPR course. At the same time I think it is very important to keep it current, particularily the CPR (recertify every year). You never know when a first aid situation will come up, and it is better for the injured person if someone around them knows what to do. So my advice is: Phone up St. Johns Ambulance, the number is in the phone book. They will tell you when their next first aid course is starting. Take that course right away, combine it with a CPR course. It will take you one or two weekends. Then after that ensure you recert. both every year, these recerts. only take a couple of hours. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest doctorbones Posted September 26, 2002 Report Share Posted September 26, 2002 First worry about getting into medical school. This is something extremely minor, a technicality so to speak. Forget about it until you are in the application process. Unless you want to get the first aid out of your own general interest of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emz552 Posted September 27, 2002 Report Share Posted September 27, 2002 thanks everyone. I'm going to call up the local St. John's ambulance office and enroll in the Standard First Aid course. And doctorbones, the reason I'm asking about this now is that I want to get it out of the way first so I don't have to worry about it later on. One less thing to keep in mind you see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mying Posted September 27, 2002 Report Share Posted September 27, 2002 St. JOHN Ambulance. Only one S in the whole name. Just so you know. My educational moment here is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest medicator007 Posted September 27, 2002 Report Share Posted September 27, 2002 Mying, Glad to see that there is another brigader out there as concerned about ensuring proper spelling and pronunciation of the brigades name. Remember: Pro Fide, Pro Utilitate Hominum Cheers, Medicator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted September 27, 2002 Report Share Posted September 27, 2002 St. John's Ambulance. Has a nice ring to it (St. John Ambulance just sounds off somehow), and judging by the number of converts (me=1, you=nil), looks like I'm winning. Heh. Ian UBC, Med 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mying Posted September 27, 2002 Report Share Posted September 27, 2002 Ha, you won't get away so easy, Ian. Come on! You're going to be a doctor! Shouldn't you be a stickler about things like this? Is it Down Syndrome, or Down's Syndrome? =) I've got two bookshelves of certificates, books, historical treatises, and metal figurines, going back two hundred years, to back me up. If Matchbox can spell it right, so can you. (I'm not really that weird, my mother deals in antiques and picks these things up). As a point of trivia, St. John Ambulance coined the phrase "first aid". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest doctorbones Posted September 28, 2002 Report Share Posted September 28, 2002 emz552 , I am glad to see that you are taking the course despite the fact that you don't need to at this point. This probably means that you look forward to helping others in emergency situations, and therefore have the makings of good future physician. Also, now would be a good time to look into some volunteer work at the hospital, in order to get some exposure to the wonderful world of health care, if you haven't already done so. This way you can also test yourself to see if you truly do enjoy being in the hospital setting. And, it really does feel great at the end of the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest medicator007 Posted September 28, 2002 Report Share Posted September 28, 2002 I must admit that the addition of the apostrophe S does indeed make the name roll off the tongue easier. However as Mying pointed out, thats not the name of the brigade. I too have several certificates (and in about 30 minutes im off to annual inspection to get another) that attest as to the proper spelling. In addition to rendering high levels of first aid (which we did indeed invent as a term) it is also my sworn quest to ensure proper spelling and pronunciation of SAINT JOHN AMBULANCE Cheers, Medicator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.