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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between FIRST AID and SPORTS FIRST AID?
There are several crucial areas where Sports First Aid fulfils a role that is not covered by the emergency aid practiced and taught by other organisations.
Appropriate treatment of sporting injuries can be different from those faced in a normal ‘accident’ environment. Most injuries that occur to young children are brought about through activity of a physical nature. A trauma experienced on the field of play is likely to be very different from that found at a traffic accident.
Judgment can be critical in assessing when a player should be removed from the field of play, especially a child, very often against the wishes of a coach/team manager or even a parent.
Awareness that sports injuries to younger people are often disguised or present as only a minor contusion or bump. The Sports First Aider must be knowledgeable of the underlying implications that could arise from a seemingly minor event.
Awareness that young people suffer from the effects of inappropriate treatment of sports injuries more than any other group and that they can carry the result of such damage for the rest of their lives.
What is the Sports First Aid course delivered by the Sports Medicine Centre?
The Sports First Aid course has been designed to:
- Greatly improve the quality of first aid provided in the sport and exercise environment.
- Increase awareness of the importance of sports first aid among people involved in sport and exercise.
- Make sport safer and
- Help prevent serious consequences developing from injuries by ensuring that the injuries are dealt with properly when they first occur.
How is the course taught?
The initial course is 16-hours long (typically over two days) and is fully assessed. The candidates are taught by medical and physiotherapy staff from the Center who are trained tutors. Not only are candidates examined on their practical CPR skills but also on their ability to handle sporting scenarios. In addition to a practical examination, candidates are required to answer two written theory papers.
At whom is the course aimed?
- Teachers
- Coaches
- Those who are on the touchline for sporting teams or events
- Healthcare professionals
- Sport and leisure course students (e.g. degree, HNC and HND)
- Leisure and fitness instructors
- Parents
- Sports participants themselves
What does the Sports First Aid course cover?
The course covers basic first aid with an emphasis on sporting injuries including:
- Roles and responsibilities – aims and legal responsibilities and sports first aid kit
- Crisis management – assessment of the unconscious patient
- CPR and the treatment of head and spinal injuries
- Prevention of sports injuries – inc warm up, cool down and stretching
- Immediate management – bleeding, shock, fractures, dislocations and soft tissue injuries
- Onward referral to more appropriate agencies
- Medical conditions including diabetes, epilepsy or asthma
- When to return to sport
- Environmental problems
How has the course been developed and validated?
The course was developed by the NSMI in collaboration with experienced medical and first aid practitioners and has been validated by The Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine (UK). The Sports Medicine Centre issues a Sports First Aid certificate that is valid for two years. There is a one-day Sports First Aid Update course for the candidate to renew and revise the skills they learnt on the original course.
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