INJURY ON THE FIELD DEALING WITH EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

Transcription

1 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LESSON INJURY ON THE FIELD DEALING WITH EMERGENCY SITUATIONS OBJECTIVES: 1. Determining what is an emergency 2. Developing an Emergency Action Plan 3. Calling The ABCs of emergency first aid INDIANA STANDARDS (Grades 3-5).1.1 Explain the connection between behaviors and personal health. (Grades 3-5).1.3 Summarize ways in which a safe and healthy community environment can promote health. (Grades 3-5).1.4 Explain ways to prevent common health problems. TEACHER TALKING POINTS Determining what is an emergency What is an emergency? An emergency is defined as a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action. Some examples of that could be: A serious car accident If you see a crime happening, like someone hurting someone else or breaking into a person s house When a person suddenly seems very sick and is having a hard time speaking or breathing or turns blue If someone collapses or passes out When someone s house is on fire The follow are examples of things that are NOT an emergency (even though they may seem like it to you at the time): You can t find your homework Your dog got into a fight with another dog Your brother or your friend dares you to call 911 You notice the person sitting next to you in a restaurant has a cold You ve had a fight with your parents Developing an Emergency Action Plan An Action Plan helps you know what you should do in an emergency. These are three steps to follow in an emergency: 1. Stay calm when you are calm, you can think more clearly. 2. Stay safe look for any dangers. For example: move away from fire; stand back from a busy street or the edge of water. 3. Get help find an adult right away. If you can t find an adult, get to a telephone and call 911.

2 Calling 911 When there is a true emergency, often times the best thing to do is call 911 for help. However, it can be scary to call for help when you need it. If you re going to make the call, here are a few tips to make it easier for you: Take a deep breath to help yourself calm down. Pick up the phone and dial When the operator answers, tell him or her that you have an emergency. Say your name and where you are (the exact address if you know it). Give a short description of what happened and how many people are hurt. (The operator will need all the information you can provide, so give as many details as you can.) Follow all of the operator s instructions carefully. Stay on the phone until the operator says it s OK to hang up. After calling for help, your first thought might be to rush over to the person who s injured. But stop and look before you do. Make sure the scene is safe. If it s not, wait in a safe spot until a grown-up or an emergency team arrives. It is extremely important that you NEVER call 911 as a joke or just to see what might happen. When the emergency dispatcher has to take the time to talk to people who don t have a real emergency, other people who call and do need help right away might have to wait. Remember to only call 911 if someone is hurt, sick or in danger. The Abcs of Emergency First Aid Sometimes it s not always necessary to call 911 for an injury. These are some injuries that might occur and what you can do immediately. A = Follow your Action Plan (that we discussed earlier in this lesson) B = Burns: If your clothes catch on fire, STOP where you are, DROP to the ground and ROLL over and over until the flames are out. C = Choking: If you see someone choking, get help right away. You can prevent choking by taking small bites of food and chewing them well. You should also eat sitting down and don t talk while eating. D = Dog (or other animal) Bites: You should stay away from animals you do not know. If you do get bitten, find an adult right away and ask for their help. E = Eye injuries: If you happen to get dirt or sand in your eye, flush it out with lukewarm water. For a more serious injury like a piece of glass find a paper cup and cut off the top half. Use the rest of the cup to cover your eye. Do not press down on your eye. Have an adult get you to the eye doctor or emergency room. F = First Aid Kit: Remind your parent to keep a first aid kit filled with bandages and medicines. Never take things out of the first aid kit always ask an adult to do it. G = Germs: Keep germs away from cuts and scrapes by cleaning them with soap and water. Cover it with a bandage to keep it clean. H = Head injury: Tell an adult right away because some head injuries can be very serious. I = Insect bites & stings: If you have an allergic reaction that causes swelling, trouble swallowing or breathing or if you feel dizzy or sick, call 911. If you just hurt where you were bit or stung, wrap some ice in a cloth and put it on the bite for a few minutes.

3 J = Jammed finger: Wash your hands and put your finger in a cup of ice water for a few minutes. Tape it to the next finger to let it heal. K = Knocked-out tooth: If it s a permanent tooth put it into a glass of white milk to protect it and get to the dentist right away (along with your tooth). If it s a baby tooth, put it under the pillow for the Tooth Fairy. L = Life Preserver: if someone is struggling in the water, yell as loudly as you can for help but do not go into the water to help them. Look for a life preserver and throw it to the person in the water. M = Medicine: if the medicine isn t yours, don t touch it! Only take medicine that is prescribed for you and given to you by a doctor or trusted adult. N = Nosebleed: Sit straight up and pinch the middle of your nose. Do not tilt your head back. If your nose keeps bleeding after a few minutes, wrap some ice in a cloth and hold it to your forehead between your eyebrows. Don t stop pinching until the bleeding stops. O = Overheating in the sun: if you are hot, thirsty or turning red, get inside and drink plenty of water. P = Poison: When someone has swallowed poison or what you think may be poison call the poison control center right away at Q = Quick: Don t wait or hesitate to getan adult s help quickly in the case of an emergency! R = Rash: a cool compress will make a rash feel better. Run some cool water over a rag and then ring it out and place it on the area of the rash. If the rash gets worse, see a doctor. S = Sprains: This is when you hurt a muscle or joint like a shoulder or knee. An adult can help you with these four steps Rest, Ice, Compress and Elevate. T = Ticks: These are little bugs that bury themselves in your skin and they can be found in the woods or fields. The only way to safely remove a tick is to have an adult use a pair of tweezers to get it out. U = Unconscious person: Try to ask the person if he or she is ok. If they do not respond, call 911 right away. V = Vomiting: Tell an adult if you are feeling sick and try to make it to the closest trash can or bowl. When you feel a little better, try small sips of water. W = Wounds that bleed: To stop a cut from bleeding, find the cleanest cloth you can and hold it firmly on the wound. X = Exposure to cold: If you can get somewhere warm right away. Then put on warm, dry clothes (if needed). If your fingers or toes hurt, do not rub them but instead soak them in warm water for minutes. Y = You! You can make a difference by knowing what to do in an emergency situation. Z = Zero accidents! The best plan is to keep accidents and injuries from happening.

4 STUDENT ACTIVITY Creating a First Aid Kit Every household should have a First Aid Kit handy in the event of an emergency. For this week s activity, ask to see your family s First Aid Kit. Or if you don t have one, look around your house to see what you can gather in order to put together a kit. For the items you do not have, ask a parent to take you to the store in order to shop for remaining First Aid Kit items. The American Red Cross recommends that the following items be included in a First Aid Kit (based on a family of four people): Two absorbent compress dressings (5x9 inches) 25 adhesive bandages in assorted sizes Two adhesive cloth tape Five antibiotic ointment packages Five antiseptic wipe packets Two packets of aspirin (81 mg. each) One blanket One breathing barrier (with one-way valve) One instant cold compress Two pairs of non-latex gloves Two hydrocortisone ointment packages Scissors One roller bandage (3 wide) One roller bandage (4 wide) Sterile gauze pads in assorted sizes One oral thermometer Two triangular bandages Tweezers First aid instruction booklet

5 FAMILY INFORMATION Sometimes it can be difficult to determine whether an injury or illness to your child needs the attention of a medical professional or can be treated at home. Different problems require different levels of care. When your child needs some sort of medical help, you have many options: 1. Deal with the problem at home. Most minor injuries and illnesses, including some cuts, certain types of rashes, coughs, colds, scrapes, and bruises, can be handled with home care and over-the-counter (OTC) treatments. 2. Call your doctor. If you re unsure of the level of medical care your child needs, your doctor or a nurse who works in the office can help you decide what steps to take and how. For assistance you can contact 338-KIDS, a 24-hour help line dedicated to kid s health and staffed by pediatric nurses. 3. Visit an urgent care center. An urgent care center can be a good option for non-emergencies at night and on weekends when your doctor may not be in the office. At these centers, you can usually get things like X-rays, stitches, and care for minor injuries that aren t life threatening yet require medical attention on the same day. 4. Visit a hospital emergency room. An emergency room or emergency department can handle a wide variety of serious problems, such as severe bleeding, head trauma, seizures, meningitis, breathing difficulties, dehydration, and serious bacterial infections. 5. Call 911 for an ambulance. Some situations are so serious that you need the help of trained medical personnel on the way to the hospital. These might include if your child has been in a car accident, has a head or neck injury, has ingested too much medication and is now hard to rouse, or is not breathing or is turning blue. In these cases, dial 911 for an ambulance. As a parent, it can be hard to make these judgment calls. You don t want to rush to the ER if it isn t really an emergency and can wait until a doctor s appointment. On the other hand, you don t want to hesitate to get medical attention if your child needs treatment right away. Remember that in cases when you know the problem is minor, it s best to contact your child s doctor, go to an urgent care center, or handle it at home. ERs can be crowded and it can take a long time for minor problems to be treated Should I Go to the ER? Here are some reasons to go to the emergency room: if your child has difficulty breathing or shortness of breath if your child has had a change in mental status, such as suddenly becoming unusually sleepy or difficult to wake, disoriented, or confused

6 if your child has a cut in the skin that is bleeding and won t stop if your child has a stiff neck along with a fever if your child has a rapid heartbeat that doesn t slow down if your child accidentally ingests a poisonous substance or too much medication if your child has had more than minor head trauma Other situations may seem alarming, but don t require a trip to the ER. The list below includes some of the symptoms that may require calling your doctor: high fever ear pain pain in the abdomen headache that doesn t go away rash mild wheezing persistent cough When in doubt, call your doctor. Even if the doctor isn t available, the office nurse can talk with you and determine whether you should go to the ER. On weekends and at night, doctors have answering services that allow them to get in touch with you if you leave a message Urgent Care Centers Sometimes an injury or an illness isn t life threatening but needs medical attention on the same day. If that s the case, and your doctor doesn t have office hours at the time, consider going to an urgent care center. Urgent care centers usually allow you to walk in without an appointment but they re equipped and staffed to treat minor, non-critical issues. Patients usually will be seen by a doctor and also might be able to get X-rays or blood drawn. Most of these clinics offer extended hours on evenings and on weekends for patients to receive treatment when the family doctor is not available. Some are open 24 hours a day every day. In addition to accepting walk-in patients, some allow you to call ahead to be seen. Some cases where you might take your child to an urgent care center include: cuts minor injuries vomiting or diarrhea ear pain sore throat infected bug bites mild allergic reactions suspected sprain or broken bone minor animal bites Find out about the urgent care centers near you before a situation comes up where you need to go to one. Ask your doctor about local facilities. In general, you should find a clinic that meets the state licensing requirements and is staffed by doctors who are board certified in their specialties, such as pediatrics, family medicine, or emergency medicine. It s also a good idea to find out if the center accepts your insurance plan. (Information adapted from KidsHealth.org)

7 LESSON PLAN EVALUATION 1. Seeing a house on fire is an example of an emergency. True False 2. You should stay on the phone with the 911 Operator until he/she tells you its ok to hang up. True False 3. If your clothes catch on fire you should run around in order to put out the flames. True False 4. If you notice that the person sitting next to you in a restaurant has a cold you should call 911. True False