We held another open course in August at the Angel Hotel in Market Harborough. Although it was a sunny day all our candidates from various local businesses attended eager to learn some new first aid skills.
Employers have to risk assess their workplace first aid requirements, and the 1-day Emergency FirstAid at Work (EFAW) qualification is one of the statutory qualifications for this purpose. All candidates must attend the full 6-hours contact time in order to fulfill the qualification ‘license to practice’ requirement. As well as a full attendance requirement each candidate is continually assessed on each section of the programme.
With modern mobile communication, modern emergency service response times and the changing face of UK employment from a manufacturing to a service economy, first aid need have changed. If the risk assessment is that employees may be faced with life-threatening incidents where they have to manage the casualty for 10 minutes, or very minor incident that will not require medical assistance, then the EFAW is the course that meets the criteria. For other potential first aid circumstances the employee can phone for help and medical assistance.
