First Aid Training - Is there a Problem??
(no name) ((no email))
Fri, 15 Jan 1999 00:34:53 -0600
I'm reposting the question from the rec.scouting.usa USENET
newsgroup because I feel that the question's great and perhaps the
person asking it can get a larger variety of responses here than he
would over there.
Divekermit@aol.com asked four questions, which I've answered:
>1. Should the first aid merit badge be just for
>demo? How proficient should scouts be?
No. The idea behind the First Aid merit badge is to learn a set of
skills...advanced ones on top of the basic ones required for
Tenderfoot, Second and First Class ranks.
Scouts should be as proficient as possible, but constant testing
isn't the answer....getting and keeping first aid skills as part of
camporee and Jamboree activities is.
>2. Should Red Cross (or other agency)
>courses be "dumbed down" to a lower level
>for scouts?
As a former Red Cross First Aid instructor, I don't think that Red
Cross training should be "dumbed down" for ANYONE. The course has
some requirements, and those same requirements should be met by
ANYONE wanting to be certified by the ARC or the AHA or other
organizations, to include the BSA.
>3. Why are there very few adults with
>recent first aid certification?
Two reasons. One, because the ARC and other organizations aren't
marketing the courses to them anymore (not enough money in it;
lookit: a business or corporation can pay cash on the barrel for
50 or 75 participants without any problems at all; A Boy Scout
District would be hard pressed to pay for 10 or so participants.
At one time, the BSA thought about including ARC first aid training
in its basic training courses for adults, but then decided against
it because it would jack up the costs of the training four fold (in
many places, BSA basic leadership courses are free; ARC training
runs anywhere from $17 to $40!)
The other reason is that for many BSA adults, they don't see it as
valuable. Perhaps we need to create a special knot or patch for
those adults whom are first aid certified...then we would see a
large number of adults to "take the training for the knot or
patch"; even more, we would see a 'value' placed on the cloth more
than the 'value' of the training behind the cloth!!
>4. What's happening in your troop? Are the
>scouts proficient? How "hard" is your first
>aid merit badge training and/or certified
>course?
This is a good question, and one I can't answer right off. It's
been years since I've been a Scoutmaster, but I can tell you that
we didn't "dumb down" the requirements just to "pass them off" on
First Aid MB. It's one of those few MBs that require a lot of
attention to detail, and that's why it takes some of my younger
Scouts longer to earn it.
This is a question that should be asked over at Scouts-L, where
there's a large "Scoutmaster" audience. I'll repost it over there
this afternoon!!
You can respond back privately if you like to divekermit@aol.com;
I've asked him to come over here and post the message himself if
he's not already a part of our happy band!
Settummanque!
(c) 1998 Mike Walton ("no such thing as strong coffee,...") blkeagle@mninter.net
http://mninter.net/~blkeagle Burnsville, MN 55306-7130 (612) 435-3085
privately at kyblkeagle@aol.com or waltonm@server.kaiserslautern.army.mil
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