Teaching Basic First Aid

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Nov 21, 2005

Since it's only an inservice, you want to stick to one topic, not teach a whole course. So, what are some of the problems that frequently tend to pop up with your patients? Skin tears is the first thing I think about in the elderly. Since the people in assisted living are active and elderly I'm sure this is something that probably comes up time and again (it did in the nursing homes I worked). So, basic first aid for this would be. . .and that is your inservice. I would also include the administrative steps that have to be taken and why. So, go over the fact that you have to complete an incident report and notify family and doctor and why this has to be done. Some aides hear the words incident report and think it's something that is going on their personnel record. Keep your inservice to 15 to 30 minutes at the most and make sure everyone who attends signs a sheet so that facility has a record of it. (Your boss must show that inservices are being offered to the staff and this is how they prove it's being done.)

Other topics might be on what to do if a patient falls. What to do if a patient starts choking on his food is another subject. If you have a patient that has some particular respiratory problem you may want to address first aid for a breathing problem. I would start by trying to figure out what the majority of incident reports are written for.

nurselearst · Nov 24, 2005

Thank you for your advice... I will be talking with my boss about starting the inservices very soon, another problem I have is that I have the only licsense in the place, they have RP's (responsible persons) so I tend to bump heads alot, I feel that I am there for the residents and not to make friends, they are only a bonus. The Rp's set up and pass meds, so I have had to correct a few several times on how and when to give certain meds. It took me 2 weeks to gain the trust of one resident and a Rp blew it for me in 10 seconds with one comment, that I was not a real nurse. I called my boss at home, I told her what happened and she was going to handle it. Of course I went and appologized to the Resident, also explained that I was a real nurse and it took me 3 years to get there. I have a liscense to protect and I will definetly do so.

KatieBell · Nov 24, 2005

Why did she pick basic first aide? In assisted Living I might have decided to discuss age related changes, or cognitive changes in aging, or for the RP's perhaps responses of the elderly to different common meds given...

Basic first aide, I am thinking of putting ice on sprains, and strains etc.