Competence Centre First Aid meets in Vienna

On 9-10 December 2017, the SAM.I. Competence Centre First Aid (CC First Aid) held its constituting session in Vienna. The CC First Aid founded itself out of the previous SAM.I. expert group on first aid, the European Committee on First Aid Education, and is going to take over their tasks. The coordinator for the first two-year work period of the CC First Aid is DPA.

Besides the adaptation of the group to the new competence-centre-based structure of expertise collection, the agenda included the creation of updated guidelines for the SAMARITAN Contest, due to take place in August of 2018. The new guidelines, to be published once the official invitation of the event has been sent out, simplify the check-lists for various first aid measures. The guidelines exist for the benefit of the host organisation who creates the tasks as well as for the youth trainers who can check how the minor remaining differences in first aid training in Europe will be rated. The new revision also takes the latest ERC guidelines into account, upon which all national first aid standards in Europe are based.

The CC First Aid also started their work on another item on their work plan: First Aid training for special target groups. Via teleconferencing they discussed with a first aid trainer from DPA who has given multiple courses to refugees in a camp in Northern Iraq. The CC First Aid will complement this information with further expert input on courses for refugees who already arrived in Europe and create a brief info sheet for training organisations faced with multicultural courses for the first time.

The SAM.I. first aid experts also plan to do a follow-up on their successful Brussels event with first aid training for MEPs later this year.