Review: Dynamic First Aid

[Paladin]

Had the chance to do a Dynamic First Aid class with Caleb Causey over the weekend. It's a solid class on the fundamentals of field medicine. Ended up being a small class which worked out great. 8+ hours worth of very personalized training.

Some of the subjects covered in this course:
- Medical and legal issues
- Scene Safety
- Patient assessment techniques
- Penetrating and blunt traumatic injuries
impaled objects
gunshot wounds
open & closed fractures
- General medical emergencies
allergic reactions
seizures
diabetic emergencies
- Modern hemorrhage control techniques
tourniquets
hemostatic agents
wound packing
pressure dressings
- Burns; thermal, electrical
- Environmental emergencies
heat/cold weather related injuries/illnesses
animal bites & stings
- Medical equipment selection

We trained and practiced the "Blood Claw" to find the location of bleeding. First time I had practiced that. I'd had instructor led training on CAT-T tourniquet before, but it was great getting in-person training on the SOFT Tourniquet. After we got some practice, Caleb would call out a limb and we would work to put each Tourniquet on in 12 seconds or less. Good stuff! We got a nice briefing and demo on the OLAES® Modular Bandage. I own a OLAES® Modular Bandage, but for the first time actually practiced applying the bandage with feedback, which was also great! Also practiced some more challenging wound packing than what I had done in Stop The Bleed.

An especially nice part of the class was having Caleb review both the gear he carried and my trauma kit. I hadn't really even considered that I needed to check expiration dates (everything is ok at the moment, but I need to acquire some fresh gear in the near future)

I'm not new to the subject of field medicine, but the class built on the knowledge I already have and I got a lot of constructive feedback on my skills and gear.

There is free training out there like Stop the Bleed, online training, or even employer sponsored medical training. Those are great stuff too, but Dynamic First Aid helped refresh my knowledge and skills and improve on what I had previously learned.

Looking forward to trying Caleb's "Skills Labs" with drills and tests to provide an realistic evaluation of my skill level.