How to Run a First Aid-O-Ree

[Cubby's Cubmaster]

I'm interested in details on how to run a district first-aid-o-ree. We would have one with 3 levels: Webelos, Boy Scouts & Venturers. Please share your experiences with organizing these. Any web links for resources would be greatly appreciated. (If there is already a thread on this, please let me know.)

[John-in-KC]

Here is a great resource: MedLine at the National Institutes of Health. Just one example, oriented to Cubs: Treating a cut...

 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000043.htm

 

Remember that for Venturing, the normal and general standard of training is the American Red Cross Standard First Aid course. That is somewhat of a higher bar than First Aid MB.

 

I'd start cross-grouping themes (say injuries) but making each event in the theme area program and requirement-specific. That way Cubs are working on Achievements, Boy Scouts are learning to fulfill rank or FA MB requirements, and Venturers are learning to meet the tasks for ARC Standard First Aid.

 

Does that help?

[Cubby's Cubmaster]

I like your idea of tying the first aid scenarios to each level using the material each is expected to master. However, I've checked out several websites and see many districts hold annual first aid-o-rees. (I participated in another district when I was a boy scout--many years ago.) I was hoping to hear from those scouters with experience about how they organize these first aid-o-rees (e.g. materials, scenarios, training, agenda/schedule/plan, recruiting volunteers, organizing committee, getting donations of $$$ and time from local hospitals/doctors/EMTs, etc). Our district hasn't done one as far as I can tell so we would be working from scratch.

 

Best regards,

CC

[moxieman]

I've never run one, only participated in one as a scout. At the time, our district got the local chapter of the American Red Cross involved. Victims had realistic looking wounds (some with gushing fake blood). At each station after our patrol did what we thought was necessary, we had a debrief by the Red Cross volunteers and then it was on to the next station.

[John-in-KC]

Are you talking to your District Activities Operations Committee (within the District Committee) yet?

 

Have you talked to your District Professionals to identify Scouters who are health care providers?

[SctDad]

Here is one suggestion. Maybe if you could talk to a local National Guard Medical unit, you might ask if you could borrow a bunch of litters from them. Them you could make a task of it. 5 boy teams. All about the same size, and have one act as the victim and the other 4 carry him between stations. when get ready to move to the next have then switch out. Or if you don't have that resource, make litters from poles and blankets.

 

Just a thought.

[CalicoPenn]

Depends on how fancy you want to get - since its a first time event, you might want to be pretty basic. Here's what I've done in the past - as a basic district wide event:

 

1) Line up a place to hold it - usually a school or church gym, or community center. You need a place big enough to hold the number of patrols (I'll use this term with the understanding that it also means dens and crews) you think will be attending.

 

2) Set up your problems - we used 5 different scenarios - in story form please - each slightly more difficult than the previous one. If you're going to do three levels, I would put together 15 scenarios - 5 for the Webelos, 5 for the Boy Scouts, 5 for the Venturers - appropriate to their level. A good way of doing this for a basic event is to write down the scenario on one page, then write the scenario and answer key (very important to have an answer key) on a second page. Part of the scenario is to introduce a time limit - the more difficult the task, the longer the time to complete (I'll share my trick question at the end). To keep things flowing smoothly, keep the timing the same at all three levels - the first scenario to be finished in 5 minutes - etc up to the 5th scenario (no more than 20 minutes would be good).

 

3) Set up your physical space - We set up a uniform size area on the gym floor for all of the patrols in attendance - they all were in the room at the same time - don't forget to leave some walking around space between the patrol spots. I always found it more efficient for the judges to move from patrol to patrol than for the patrols to move from judge to judge.

 

4A) Ahh, judges! Where to get them? We always made it a mandatory part of the participation entry that each patrol was required to contribute one judge - that way you will have a judge for each patrol, and won't have to go through brain damage trying to find, say, 25 judges for 25 patrols. This is the time for the units/patrols to step up to the plate. Here's the beauty part - no real experience is neccessary - because everyone will have an answer key! As the Scouts are settling into their digs, have a judge's meeting in a different room. At the judge's meeting, go over the general plan for the event, then split up into your respective levels and have a "head judge" of each level (a District volunteer of course, who you met with a few days before to go over their areas scenarios and answers)go briefly through the scenarios and answers, and judging sheet (don't forget those - we used one sheet per scenario - point based - number of points based on what was correctly done from the answer key - you'll have to determine the points) - answering questions of the judges before the start of the event. Assign the judges to an initial patrol (if the patrol is from their own unit, they need to switch with another judge - but - no one should judge the same patrol twice if it can be avoided.

 

4B) Ahhh - Victims. Where to get? Each patrol had to supply their own victim (if you have a multiple victim - suggest no more than two - scenario, they have to supply 2) - usually a younger brother or sister, or maybe a senior scout/troop guide (who must keep quiet - points get taken away by the judge if the victim tells the patrol how to do something - and put that on the form at the bottom and set the penalty high - 20 points - and make sure the patrol and victims know there is a penalty for the victim helping).

 

5) To start a scenario - the judge gives the patrol leader the scenario sheet, and 2 minutes are given for the patrol to read the scenario and start discussing what to do - the judges need to remain silent. Use a whistle system and explain it at the outset. 1 blast means reading period. After 2 minutes, 2 blasts mean start. 3 blasts mean stop. The judges take a few minutes to look over the work, fill out the score sheet (don't forget the patrol names and troop numbers), review with the patrol, have disputes settled (if there are any), then a runner comes by and collects all the score sheets (so the volunteer scorers you've arranged can start filling out a spreadsheet with the scores while the next scenario begins - at the end of the last scenario, the patrols can clean up while the scorers enter just the scores for the last scenario - and by the time the clean up is done, the awards can be handed out).

 

6) The judge moves over to the next space, while the patrol cleans up and prepares for the next scenario - again, if a judge ends up at a patrol from his own unit, he needs to find someone to switch with. Then, do the read, start, stop thing again. Repeat until all the scenarios are done.

 

7) A note on supplies - not only does the patrol need to supply a judge, they need to bring their own set of supplies. We always set up the scenarios so that they could be done with the suggested supplies in a troop first aid kit (see various scouting books on suggested first aid kits). We always found it prudent to provide the units with the list of suggested supplies in advance of the event so they could get it together if need be. You don't have to use everything in the kit - and it should be made clear that the patrols shouldn't use the units actual first aid kits, but should make up a kit just for the event (so no one "forgets" to restock the unit first aid kit after the event). We always tried to be somewhat reasonable, though - if we knew none of the scenarios would require an expensive supply that might otherwise be found in a unit first aid kit, we made sure to strike through it as something they should be prepared to bring. Whatever isn't used can go into a box for restocking the unit kit, or to hold for the next year. If you're going to include a splinting scenario, or a scenario requiring triangular bandages, or making a stretcher out of poles and blankets, make sure you put that on the list of things to bring - but I suggest only doing so if you're actually going to have the patrols use it.

 

Thats a basic outline of a First Aid O-Ree. Don't forget to reward the judges and victims with a little something - we usually gave them the patch that the lads would get for participating. Check with the Red Cross in your area for any fun little films that you could show just before the meet (during the judges meeting) or after (just before handing out the awards).

 

Now I promised my trick question. Your scenarios can be as simple as 5 year old Sam pulled a pot of boiling water off the stove burning his hand and arm - you have 5 minutes to treat - and go! to a long drawn out "you're with your patrol 10 miles in on a 20 mile hike into the backwoods of Wisconsin when you hear a woman screaming for help. You locate the woman and learn that her husband was climbing a tree to get his bearings when he slipped and fell, landing at the bottom of the tree. He is unconscious, with what appears to be a broken leg, a broken arm, blood coming from a large gash on the back of his head.... (you get the picture) - you have 20 minutes to treat and prepare to evacuate - GO! (not forgetting in your answer key that there are two victims here - the panicing woman who may be going into shock).

 

Anyway - to my trick question - we always tried to get the lads to remember their surroundings. We had one scenario where the patrol was walking through their suburban neighborhood on the way to the park to play a bit of frisbee golf when they saw and heard a horrible car crash - they ran to the scene to see if they could help. We described a number of injuries then ended with: The cars were not in any danger of catching fire, the paramedics were less than 4 minutes away. You have 15 minutes to treat - Go!. The correct answer for full credit was - Call 911, and do nothing more than comfort the victims and try to keep people away from the scene. Doing nothing at all was also acceptable (Makes the assumption that the ambulance was on its way). Treating for shock (and nothing else) was worth 80 points. Anything more than that was worth 20 points (for calling 911 or treating for shock) Why? The ambulance is less than 4 minutes away, and you're doing first aid - in some cases, first aid means no aid - as doing anything can just cause the paramedics to have to spend more time undoing what you've done before they can start assessing the injuries. We only had two patrols get this completely right (and one, admittedly, was a Webelos den that was so overwhelmed by the question they didn't do a thing (it was one of the two advanced questions of the day - they didn't complete the 2nd one either - we hadn't expected a Webelos den to participate back them but one Webelos leader wanted to give his boys the opportunity - who were we to say no)). We didn't do this question blind, of course. We made it a point to remind the Scoutmasters to prepare their lads for a scenario where the paramedics might be just around the corner. Though a couple of Scoutmasters were upset about it at first, they came around pretty quickly when they realized that the first aid meet was about more than just testing the skills, it was also about testing the lads judgement - and that they had to do a little better about teaching more than just the hands-on skills (and that they were given ample warning that such a questions was not only possible, but likely).

 

Anyway, that's my book on the subject - hope it helps.

 

Calico

 

PS - that Webelos Den came in 11th out of 28 if I remember correctly - even though they got very few points at all on one of the questions.

[Cubby's Cubmaster]

Nice post, Calico. Just what I was looking for. From your post, I can put together an outline to discuss with our district. It would be a big undertaking but I believe the skills learned to prepare for the first aid-o-ree are very important and I think the first aid-o-ree would help our scouts be prepared when first aid is needed at home, school, work, and in the outdoors.

 

If there are others with experiences with organizing first aid-o-rees, please share those experiences/advice here. I'm sure if there is interest that we'll contact other districts directly for more details.

 

Best to all,

CC

[CalicoPenn]

Once your district gets one or two of these events under their belt, get creative.

 

At one first aid meet, halfway in to a long, complicated scenario, the meet was interrupted with an announcement that while the Patrol was working on the victim (of a rockslide), another rock came lose and hit the Patrol Leader (who was usually the person doing most of the first aid anyway) in the head, knocking him out and putting a gash in his head. At the point, the patrols Patrol Leader could no longer participate and had to act as another victim - and couldn't help or tell anyone else what needed to be done - remember the "if the victim helps, lose 20 points" I suggested? Comes in to play here. And the patrol couldn't subsitute anyone else for the Patrol Leader as victim - the victim had to be the lad that was acting as the Patrol Leader of the patrol during the event, and more particularly, during the scenario (some of the units would have a different person act as patrol leader for each scenario).

 

At another event, a phone tech savvy person rigged up a couple of payphones (real payphones - on loan from the phone company) to ring phones in another room when the 911 was dialed on the phone. At random times during the scenarios, an index card would be handed to the patrol leader directing them to send one Scout to one of the pay phones to make an emergency call with information on the card - the Scout couldn't take the card with them, and they were given just enough time to read the card and take quick notes. When the scout dialed 911, they talked to a real dispatcher (a couple of dispatchers from the local fire department volunteered their time). By the end of the meet, each patrol had taken part and their scores from this were added to their overall scores.

 

The district once set up a first aid meet where the patrols would walk through a neighborhood finding 5 scenarios taking place in peoples homes - complete with realistic make-up, that they had to complete. The patrols only spent an hour doing all 5 scenarios - including walking from house to house. The meet was limited to 30 patrols - and 5 at a time went through the course - the meet took place over 6+ hours (there was a couple of breaks for lunch, etc.) and went pretty well but the logisitics turned out to be more than the nightmare it was expected to be.

 

I always wanted to put together a meet with one scenario - a school bus accident with numerous injuries, but there just wasn't enough time in a day to be able to run one patrol through the scenario at a time.

 

Calico

[hskydg]

Nice entries, glad to hear of ideas from other folks involved in First Aid Meets. We've been having an annual first aid meet for approx 30 yrs now, we're utilizing moulage and makeup for realism as well. I've been wanting to do the 911 phone call scenario for awhile now, I'm gonna try that next year. I would like to offer the idea of a "bye" an informational space placed into the round robin. This gives the Scouts a chance to take a breather, regroup, and check their equipment (which gets pretty used half way thru these events) We usually schedule a medical or 1st aid group from around the area, and have had anything from rescue dogs to AEDS to Poison Control. Great way to still learn, but take a bit of a break from what can be a hectic day. Also would like to suggest (if it hasn't already been) that drama clubs from community colleges and high schools are great for enlisting "victim" volunteers. We have a few scenarios that involve a parent or friend that will interfere with the patrol due to fear or shock, and these folks who have had theatrical and acting training are terrific. Also gives them a chance to do a bit of "practice". Glad to find this thread...will keep watching!

[Knot Head]

Great thread! I'm not aware of our Troop ever participating in one of these. Not sure of the district offers one or not.

 

Is there a web site that has word or PDF files of already written out scenarios & answer keys like Calico posted above so we don't have to start from scratch & reinvent the wheel?

 

Calico, could you email your Q&A keys to me?

 

(This message has been edited by knot head)

[CalicoPenn]

Knothead,

 

I would if I had them, but alas, most of my scenarios and keys predate Windows version 0.00001.

 

Calico

[hskydg]

Just taking a poll:

Of those who have done a first aid meet, how many have rotating judges and how many have rotating patrols? We've found that judges are able to study and judge the problem better if they stick with one problem throughout the meet: Less preperation time, and the staff are able to easily if (not that it happens often) there is a problem with the judging of a problem. Our main concern with judges is maintaining consistency with the paired judges: that is, we run two "flights" (A/B) on the same floor, with 16 problems going in each flight. So we will two of the same problem, and likewise two judges. It is very important that we make sure the "A" judge confers w/the "B" judge just to insure consistency in judging. Given we have an 8:00 wave and a 10:30 wave, that's 64 patrols going thru in one day, so we have to watch pretty carefully.