Malia+M’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2016

First Aid and School Curriculum

If an irrational fraction walked into the room, I would be able to fix it, and turn it into a rational one. If a grammatically incorrect sentence burst through the door, I could fix that. You could fix those too. But if say, Mr. Briggs, or even a parent, possibly your parent, walked into the room to watch presentations and had a heart attack, I would be able to “fix” them, but would you? Fun fact, in our school district, saving someone quickly with an AED would not be possible in the case of a heart attack, as AEDs are banned from all campuses. They can’t even be kept locked away somewhere, so CPR would be our only choice of immediate response. So, do you know CPR, could you help? Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the US, which can result in ailments such as a heart attack. We are taught all these “basic” things in school that are seen as relevant to our future careers, but what about classes that teach us things that are relevant to life outside our jobs? Or, I guess, if an incident did occur at work, inside our jobs too.

Injuries occur everywhere, every day, and in varying severities. Sometimes, theses instances require immediate medical attention. As in right away, not a 5-8 minute wait for an ambulance. We tend to put a little bit too much emphasis on dialing 911 in emergencies rather than learning how to take care of ourselves and others with first aid. I was privileged enough to be accepted into BioScience, however, quite a few others weren’t, and while I am very grateful, I don’t like how the only first aid and CPR certifying class on campus is available to a select group.

In the America I grow up in, I would like to see more schools offering classes to all students that teach first aid and CPR skills. Now I’m not saying I’d like the next generation of third graders to know how to splint an open fracture, but wouldn’t it be awesome if middle and high schools offered these classes as an elective? You would literally be taking a class on life saving and helping others. It would be unrealistic to expect that everyone would be interested in learning these courses, but I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect that these classes would be unpopular. Nor to underestimate their effectiveness. Going back to heart disease, according to the CDC, as of 2015, 1 out of every 4 people will die of heart disease. That’s a really scary number, imagining that you might be that one person one day. If you had a stroke or a heart attack somewhere, wouldn’t you want somebody to be able to identify the symptoms and help you? Wouldn’t you kind of expect help, a little? What if that one person was a loved one, wouldn’t you want someone to be able to help them if you weren’t there? Were all going off in our own directions soon, and for some of us, this is a genuine concern. Sure, someone could call 911, but the average arrival time, again, is 5-8 minutes, and the body can only survive without oxygen for 3 minutes before serious side effects kick in. Sorry, I don’t mean to scare you, or make you paranoid, but these are the facts. This is another reason why offering more classes on these subjects would be useful, because today’s youth will be our safety net for tomorrow. And I doubt the health of our nation will be rapidly improving anytime soon, so it would be good to have a fall back.

It is true that these courses are offered outside of school, but sometimes finding time for that in our schedules is hard, and if these subjects weren’t given attention in school, some kids might not develop the desire to learn these valuable skills. I had this problem in middle school, where I couldn’t find a day to get certified on, as it was either full, or I had other obligations. Plus, don’t you think that people would absorb the material better over a quarter or semester, rather than 6 intense hours with strangers? There is also the point that adding this class might cost more as dummies cost money, etc. However school districts don’t buy vehicles for every school, right? So why can’t the same apply to dummies? Sets of dummies could be bought and distributed amongst schools by the district as needed based on what the students would be learning. Not all lessons for first aid and CPR require dummies, so schools could teach different aspects at different times so an efficient rotation could be accomplished. As for textbooks, I never used any in MedTech, so they wouldn’t be a problem.

 Teaching first aid and CPR courses would encourage compassion and teamwork, as those factors play a major role in successfully helping somebody. I’ve been talking a lot about CPR, so I’ll start talking about how it comes into play with first aid. Summer and Allie can you come up here and help me demonstrate? Does anyone want to volunteer to be a victim? Ok, so summer is just around the corner, so I am going to teach you a useful skill in the case of heat stroke. Symptoms include sweating, dizziness, paleness, and fainting. Now, I’ve had heat stroke before, and I know that you do not want to move when you “come to”. So say that our victim fainted of heatstroke. Then here is what we would do: Oh my gosh! You just fainted! Can you hear me? Alright, so they and such just fainted, which means that their body went into some sort of shock, so I need to elevate their feet and get water or an ice pack, but for time sake we won’t do that, and if you have any questions you can ask me at the end. After being in recovery position, and using ice packs and water to wake up and revive the person, we will need to move them to a safer place. Ok now we are going to carry you to the car and take you home (but, not in reality). So that was one way to carry away a “victim”, but there also many other ways. You could see how I communicated and worked with the team, so that we were effective.

Another example of teamwork would be having somebody help you splint a broken bone, or grab you supplies to stop an injury like an intense bleed where leaving the victim should be avoided. Hopefully that doesn’t happen to any of you guys though this summer. Would anyone else like to be a victim before I move on?

I hope that all of you guys stay safe while remembering to have fun, because that is what you all should be doing in your free time in the upcoming weeks. Until schools do start offering first aid and CPR electives, though, I would encourage all of you guys to look into a first aid class or CPR class on your own. Thank you, and have a great summer!

CDC website Anderson's class
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