Ralph Clark never thought he’d have the skills or confidence to be able to help in the event of an emergency, until he completed the First Minutes Matter trauma training workshop.
“I got so much out of it, confidence in particular, that if I do come across some kind of emergency now, I feel confident that I do have the skills that could make a difference and even save somebody’s life.”
The South Burnett retiree is one of thousands of people now armed with critical and potentially life-saving skills, shared by the medical professionals who work on board the iconic blue and yellow RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopters.
First Minutes Matter trauma training is a free community safety education program offered online and in-person by LifeFlight Australia’s most senior Critical Care Doctors and Flight Paramedics.
After its first year of delivery and almost 30 in-person workshops hosted across Queensland, the program is being hailed a huge success.
“The past 12 months have been a really great success for the program; we’ve far exceeded expectations in terms of workshops and online registrations, due to demand and the success and ease of the program,” said LifeFlight Paramedic and First Minutes Matter Trainer Craig Blick.
“We’ve hosted 29 face-to-face workshops, so that means we’ve been to 27 rural communities with 418 people registered for the five and a half hour workshops, which means a lot of people have had the opportunity to access trauma care that they wouldn’t ever normally be able to have access to.”
“For our online component, we’ve had 2,634 registered participants,” he said.
“So as a group, we’ve had over 3050 people exposed to the First Minutes Matter trauma training workshops and online learning modules, which we are really happy to see.”
Following the launch of the program in late 2021, thousands of every-day Queenslanders are now better equipped to help during the initial, crucial minutes following a traumatic incident.
Now more than 12 months on, LifeFlight is returning to the Sunshine Coast region for another series of in-person workshops, to educate even more community members.
“We’ve chosen to go back out to the Sunshine Coast region because we’ve had such strong demand from these communities,” said Craig Blick.
“So we are going back and it’s especially important just before Christmas because we want to educate people leading into the holiday season, because we truly think we can make a difference with the First Minutes Matter trauma training.”
“We recognise that we need to get back to these communities and keep educating people so we can continue to save lives,” he said.
Past workshop participant Ralph Clark is encouraging those in the region to sign up.
“I think it’s critical, especially for people in regional areas, to learn these skills because, I’ll put it bluntly, it can mean the difference between life and death,” he said.
“If the opportunity is there for anybody to partake in a course like this, I say grab it with both hands, sign up the moment you hear about it. It is so well worthwhile and you get so much out of it.”
The idea to create First Minutes Matter trauma training for the public came from LifeFlight’s aeromedical crew members, who know patient outcomes are dramatically improved by actions taken in the first minutes after an incident, before emergency crews arrive.
“As a paramedic, I understand the CBD and larger communities are well catered for in terms of paramedical response, but it is the direct opposite when we go to the remote communities,” said Craig Blick.
“So it’s really important for us to be heading out to these regional communities and educate them on what to do while they’re waiting for an ambulance, police, fire and rescue or even the RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter.”
“These teachings make a huge difference. The topics that we choose to teach are aimed at those real-life threats that can happen and we can teach people the basic skills, so that we can help save lives and we know that’s happening,” he said.
Land Rover is supporting the First Minutes Matter program as Official Vehicle Partner, providing LifeFlight with a Defender 4WD to ensure the medical experts can deliver workshops to regional communities.
During the free, in-person workshops, LifeFlight Paramedic and First Minutes Matter Trainer Craig Blick shares his invaluable knowledge for dealing with trauma incidents including seizures, choking, burns, bleeding, snake bites and cardiac events.
The latest in-person First Minutes Matter workshops are being held in Noosa on 5th and 6th of December.
Register at – firstminutesmatter.org.au
A refreshed online course will be available next year.
