What are the issues involved in the relationship between first aid and emergency health

Essentially, first aid is the "first stepping stone" in the emergency health system. The relationship between the two runs through the entire link of risk prediction, on-site treatment, and subsequent recovery. It is never as simple as a separate "emergency" action.

Last summer when I was doing emergency science education in the community, I encountered a real incident. Aunt Zhang, who was dancing in the square, fainted from heatstroke. The old sisters nearby would only pinch her. No one thought to move the person to the shade and unbutton her collar to cool down. By the time 120 was sent to the hospital, she already had signs of heat stroke, and it took her a week in the hospital to recover. This is actually a typical example of the lack of popular emergency science that hinders emergency health - if the key points of first aid for heatstroke in hot weather are explained to the elderly in the community in advance, the risk can be minimized.

Don’t think that first aid is just a passive response after an accident. Its popularity itself is a “living ruler” of emergency health levels. When we went to the high school to conduct emergency investigations, the school thought it was a waste of money to provide each class with AEDs and train students in first aid skills. Until the middle of the semester, a senior high school student suddenly suffered from cardiogenic fainting while playing basketball. There happened to be a physical education teacher nearby who had just passed the first aid certificate. He used an AED to save the person within 3 minutes. After that, the school took the initiative to include first aid training as a required course for freshmen. Even the parent-teacher conference included a first aid science section. It was a successful first aid practice and directly filled the loopholes in the emergency health scene on campus.

Speaking of this, I have to mention the controversy that has always existed in the industry. One group of people believes that first aid is too professional. Ordinary people who are half-trained can easily make operational mistakes and aggravate the injuries of the injured. First aid authority should be given to professional medical care. The other group believes that the core of emergency health is to be knowledgeable. The golden first aid window is only 4 minutes. Waiting for 120 to arrive has often missed the best opportunity. Even if ordinary people can only do the most basic chest compressions, it is better than standing and waiting. I have been attending grassroots first aid training for almost five years. To be honest, these two views do not conflict at all. Just like the fire extinguisher you have at home, you do not need to have professional fire extinguishing skills. At least you have to know that if there is a fire, pull out the safety pin and spray it at the root of the fire. It is better than waiting for the firefighters to come and burn it out.

Many people tend to ignore the back-end connection between the two. First aid on-site treatment records are actually the core basis for subsequent emergency health intervention. At the scene of a car accident in the emergency center last month, we applied a tourniquet to the injured person who was bleeding from the lower limbs, and marked the precise time of bandage with a marker on the back of the injured person's hand. When he was sent to the emergency room, the doctor no longer had to spend time checking the bleeding duration, and could directly determine whether there was a risk of limb ischemia. Community follow-up during the recovery phase could also follow this treatment record and adjust the plan. This means that first aid gave an accurate start to the entire emergency health follow-up process, saving a lot of detours.

To put it bluntly, emergency health is a safety net for everyone, and first aid is the densest knots in this net. Whether the net is strong or not directly determines whether people can be rescued when something goes wrong.