FirstAidForm - Usage Guidelines
Advice for First Aider / First Responder / Medic at the scene of an incident
- Assess the scene as normal practice, to establish the priorities, with the prerequisite of maintaining your own personal safety.
- Having taken whatever steps are necessary to safeguard your personal safety and that of the casualty, undertake immediate care of the casualty including, if necessary, resuscitation.
- Having stabilised the casualty's condition, document the actions taken and injuries/illness found, using this National Emergency First Aid Observation and Report Form©. The form should be filled in, or boxes ticked, starting in the top left corner and working towards the bottom right. Ensure you get a name and address/telephone number of the casualty and other relevant administrative information, if possible.
- You should be aware that the National Emergency First Aid Observation and Report Form© is a document that can be used at a number of first aid or paramedic/medical levels and that others, with more training and experience, could add to and/or use the information at a later stage.
- Organise transport for the casualty to the appropriate medical services. If you are accompanying the casualty, assist in monitoring the casualty's condition and documenting any changes found or treatment given en route. If the casualty makes their own way by car or other private means, or if he/she refuses help, give the casualty the top and green copies of the form and advise them to see their own family doctor.
- If you are not accompanying the casualty, advise the ambulance driver or paramedic of the National Emergency First Aid Observation and Report Form© you are sending with the casualty so that he/she is aware it exists and that information is contained in it.
- The top copy of the form is to be given to the hospital / family doctor / medical facility staff and the green copy kept by the paramedic / ambulance service. Keep the blue copy for your own records and give the pink copy to your employer, or those who have asked you to undertake first aid duties on that day.
- It is important to keep the forms safely. The information could be used at a much later stage (months or even years later) if any question should be raised about what was done or found on the day. First aid staff must be aware of the possibility of enquiries or litigation claims related to incidents they have been involved in. The form will assist in defending first aid findings and actions in court, should it be necessary. First aid staff in the UK must also be aware that they have a legal obligation to HM Coroner to provide evidence in the case of a casualty’s death. This form will help in providing that evidence.