First aid is a way in which an injured or sick individual can receive immediate support from another individual. However, I believe that anyone can provide this support if educated about First Aid not just a health professional. First Aid should be made compulsory at school because this will allow individuals from a young age to help others they see that are injured or sick. In particular young people will be able to help members of their family, friends or people in the public due to them being aware of the procedure needed in order to provide short term relief or any form of effective help until another individual with a higher level of First Aid or a paramedic can help.
St John Ambulance stated that “every year 140,000 people die from injuries and sudden illnesses who could have had a chance of survival if they had experienced immediate and effective first aid”. This truly shocking statistic shows the significance First Aid can provide individuals with, it also leads me to question why First Aid is not currently compulsory at school, because children from a young age can provide another individual with effective First Aid. People should consider the amount of lives that could be saved if more people knew First Aid and could provide immediate support and then could receive help from the highly skilled paramedics.
First Aid cannot only help the sick or injured individual and potentially save their life, it is also a great qualification to put on your CV. If First Aid was made compulsory at school every child would be capable of helping an injured or sick individual at any given time with the skills required to provide support. Teachers should also have a level of First Aid in case an incident occurred in their classroom, they would be able to help a student immediately instead of waiting for a school nurse or paramedic to arrive at the school.
