First Aid – Careers in Adventure

Handle Outdoor Emergencies

Know what to do when you are far from help and there’s an accident. First Aid in a remote location requires that you be self-reliant and have the presence of mind to do what needs to be done to calm the injured, make them more comfortable or even save a life.

Wilderness First Aid Level 3 and Casevac

The 4-day course first aid course is accredited by the Department of Labour in SA. After the one-day casualty evacuation training you receive our certificate which will be needed if you go on to the legal guiding qualification.

In serious cases, external help must be summoned. Your team may then have to execute a casualty evacuation in difficult terrain in order to get a patient to a transportation point. None of this is easy and all of it is emotionally stressful.

The course helps you to keep a cool head and apply the techniques of wilderness first aid to the best of your ability. No-one is perfect but this training will give you the confidence and competence to handle emergencies.

The “patient” is not in pain in this exercise. He has a dislocated shoulder and arm injury – but if this happened for there would be nothing relaxed about this scene.

Wilderness First Aid is essential for adventure tour guides. If there is one thing we can be sure of it is that accidents will happen in the outdoors. Our school requires Wilderness First Aid Level three (4 day course), and to that we add a halfday drill in casualty evacuation (Casevac).

Helicopter rescue is difficult and dangerous. Here, it followed after the evacuation of the casualties from the location in which they were injured. Casevac training is essential for guides. They may need to assist highly skilled mountain rescue teams.

Related issues

On course we obviously don’t call for a helicopter! An aspect that is discussed is cost. Are clients insured? Are YOU insured? Financial, legal and regulatory issues are not strictly part of first aid but they are relevant and we touch on them.

Class by the river: AsAfrica courses take trainees into the natural environment for realistic scenarios.

What the course covers

This is an intensive 4day course ending with practical and theory tests. The Department of Labour in South Africa accredited first aid training that must l be taught and organised in terms of their requirements.

Primary and secondary assessment and triage
Identification and immediate care of injuries to save life and minimise
further risks
Medical emergencies and allowable first aid interventions
Environmental, biological and other hazards, accident prevention and on-site treatment
Legal, cultural and ethical limits on First Aid care

There is a written and practical test to gain the certificate. Training exercises involve practical scenarios. A training manual is provided with the course.

CASEVAC
Priorities for the safe care and transport of the injured are taught and practised in the one day course. AsAfrica issues the certificate which is required as proof of technical competency for adventure tour guiding.

Single and multiple casualties and triage.
Decision to move or not move patient/s
Calling for help, protocols. ETHANE.
Keeping records and witness details.
Stretcher building and improvisation. Other methods
Mountain and river scenarios.
Short and long duration care.
Personnel and group psychology.
Helicopters, essentials and pitfalls.
Transport and extraction management.
Incident reporting.
Group debrief.

Click to download the leaflet (Dec 2022)

These courses run three times a year: February, April and October.