The Benefits of First Aid Training In Sport

Injury can be a common occurrence in sport and exercise. When you think of sports injuries, muscle tears and stud marks come to mind, but this is not always the case.

How can first aid training help when severe or potentially fatal injuries occur in sport?

What is First Aid in Sport?

You would use first aid in sport to stop whatever sport to prevent further injury.

Acute Sport Injuries

The Emergency First Aid at Work course covers how to attend to basic cuts and bruises, otherwise known as “acute injuries”. Other acute injuries are swelling, pain, fractures, sprains and concussion.

Head Injuries in Sport

You will also learn how to deal with a casualty who has lost consciousness through a head injury. People have become so concerned about head injuries in sports that officials have put in new rules to deal with them. In Football’s English Premier League, a new rule has been introduced, which means that a player who has suffered a head injury MUST leave the pitch and have a full assessment before being cleared to play. Premier league doctors also need a third “tunnel” doctor to consult with both home and away teams.

First Aid at Work

If an injury leads to a seizure or a fracture, only a First Aid at Work qualified person can attend to the casualty. The course will also teach you how to administer treatment to common sports injuries. Ankle, hamstring, and groin strains are very common in sport; the First Aid at work course will teach you how to prevent swelling, manage inflammation and pain, and follow up the injury before a doctor arrives.

The course will also touch on catering to those who have received common leg and knee injuries. ACL tears and leg breaks are usual injuries in contact sports such as rugby; with the proper knowledge, you will know how to relieve the casualty until a medical practitioner arrives.

AED Defibrillators in Sport

In 2012 at White Hart Lane, Bolton Wanderers player Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest during play. The awareness of heart attacks in sport has massively increased because the midfielder’s heart stopped for 78 minutes. Since the incident, over nine hundred AEDs have been made available to sports clubs in the UK; that is why we must know how to use them.

What Does the Acronym PRICE Mean?

To stop swelling in sport, medical staff would conduct the PRICE method.

P – Protection: Stop the activity immediately to protect against the injury.

R – Rest: Rest the injury and allow it to heal.

I – Ice: Apply ice to the injury to help reduce the pain and swelling. Only apply ice for 20 minutes at a time.

C – Compression: When you tightly wrap the injury, you are helping to reduce the swelling.

E – Elevation: By elevating the injury, you reduce blood flow to the injured area, which helps to reduce swelling.

First Aid Myths: What Not To Do

Please take a look at our blog, in which we clear up what is first aid fact and first aid fiction here.