Developing the International First Aid Education System
In April 2023, GFARC – with the active participation of the American Red Cross, the Canadian Red Cross, the Qatar Red Crescent and its 24 First Aid Master Educators – has launched a new project. One main objective: developing the First Aid Education System by working on each level of the chain. The project, which will run until the end of the year, has already begun with intensive work sessions.
An ambitious multi-faceted project
GFARC First Aid Education System is built on four different levels (see drawing below).
In order to update and keep the First Aid Education System efficient, the Global First Aid Reference Centre decided to launch a project which, with the involvement of the pool of international First Aid Master Educators coming from all parts of the world, has three missions:
- Build a curriculum for the First Aid Trainers (level B)
- Update GFARC current curriculum for the Trainers of Trainers (level C)
- Refresh the Master Educators
This ambitious project requires a long and hard work. That is why it is implemented in five distance meetings with preliminary work from May to July, as well as a four-day face to face meeting in Paris in October, and a consolidation work in November.
First steps, brainstorming and knowledge sharing
For now, all distance meetings have been held. The first one was the occasion for all participants to get to know each other, and for the coordinators to present the objectives and each step of the project. Then, a brainstorming session in small groups took place on the basis of questions related to the First Aid Education System.
After the coordinators collected all the feedback from this first meeting, the second one was to draft the competencies for level 1, the First Aid Trainers. As for the third meeting, the Master Educators were divided in working group in order to build a lesson plan for level 1. The modules were the following: chain of survival behaviors, facilitation skills, skills demonstration, peer learning, scenarios building, and skills assessment.
The 4th meeting was designed to brainstorm on how a trainer would measure success for lesson plans identified for level B and to link with what we need in the Level C course. To clearly articulate what they will be experiencing in the level C course to make that achievable. As for the final meeting it was a recap on where we are exactly in the process, what are the next steps and what to prepare for the meeting in October.
Stay tuned for more!
