As advanced drivers there is an expectation that we will have at least a rudimentary knowledge of how to act in the event of a roadside medical emergency. But what knowledge or skill do we actually have and what should we have?
I am an IAM full member, having proudly passed my advanced test in 2021. By profession I am a registered nurse with the extra qualifications of Emergency Nurse Practitioner and Advanced Clinical Practitioner. This means I have specific skills and experience in emergency care but these days my job is more akin to a GP. I’ve also published a book on injury management, and crucially here, I’ve stopped to deliver emergency care at a fair few Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs) over the years. I’m not a paramedic and don’t carry their extensive kit but I do believe that I have made a significant difference to outcomes over the years, with one stark case in particular.
RTCs are often chaotic and unpredictable situations. There may be no casualties at all or there may be several in different states of trauma and distress. There is an old adage: “lead, follow or get out of the way” and I’m a great believer in that. Sometimes the situation needs someone to take charge. Sometimes the situation is being well-managed and our assistance in a given task is invaluable. Sometimes we need to realise that we are contributing to chaos and just get out of the way. We would hope that as advanced drivers who make decisions on how to act that we would know which of these three paths to take. In every RTC that I’ve attended I’ve taken the lead on assessing and treating casualties until I’ve been able to hand over to paramedics and I have to add that the police are always very grateful for my actions. I’ve also been grateful for those who help me along the way. As to the “or get out of the way…” rubberneckers are a bigger problem now than they’ve ever been and we need to assume that everything that we do at an incident is being filmed on a smartphone.
How up to date is your first aid knowledge? You don’t need to know a lot in order to make a big difference, including saving lives.
Do you know what’s in your first aid kit and how to use it? Is everything in date? Are you familiar with the “DR ABC”* approach? It’s easy, it’s logical and it works. And do you have a way of recording your actions for your own records for any future statements but also to help the police and ambulance?
In addition to this we all surely know how to call 999 but can you describe the location? what3words is an excellent tool for describing your location down to three square metres and the app is free to use.
It makes sense to have a degree of first aid or emergency incident training as part of our advanced driving. Courses are readily available and must surely enable us to be better contributors to overall road safety.
Peter Jones BN (Hons.) MSc RN (Adult) MIAM
Full Member, IAM
Author of Ninja Nurse: The Essential Guide to Injury Management in Martial Arts
*DR ABC is a simple memory aid used to guide what to check first when dealing with a casualty. It helps you prioritise life-threatening issues in the right order:
