It is a sign of the times that farm families have to be prepared with first aid for any emergency, says the executive director of Alberta’s branch of St. John Ambulance.
Michael Cearns said health-care cuts by governments everywhere mean people must be ready to deliver help immediately rather than wait for medical experts. That’s why his organization has developed a course teaching first aid for the farm.
Since 1995 the Alberta group has trained 500 farm family members across the province.
This year that effort will be intensified. The group plans to offer its course nationally through provincial branches of St. John Ambulance. Also, the Alberta council recently formed a partnership with the provincial association of agricultural societies to spread the course.
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There are 300 agricultural societies in Alberta and most belong to the association, said spokesperson Wendy Pruden. She said the societies organize fairs, exhibitions, fund raisers and other community events in rural areas across the province. And now, with the first aid group’s help, they can deliver the emergency course.
“Basically we’re endorsing the program and encouraging them to take the course,” said Pruden.
Cearns said ag societies can contact him about whether to use instructors from St. John or to train their own people to deliver first aid courses.
Minimal fee
The six-hour course costs $5.25 per person and covers how to handle emergencies such as farm accidents, heart attacks, bleeding, choking and poisonings.
Cearns said 38 percent of all farm fatalities in the 1990s are tractor related. News stories over the last few years saying farmers are more likely than miners to be killed on the job led St. John to develop its first aid on the farm course.
“What happens immediately after an accident determines the outcome,” said Cearns. When farmers are 20, 30 or 60 minutes from a hospital, first aid can make a difference in a patient’s recovery or even his life.
The need for rural first aid has been recognized elsewhere. A farm family emergency response program was tested in Saskatchewan last year and will also be offered nationally through the Centre for Agricultural Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan.
