A Brief History
Queen's First Aid was formed in 1986 to provide prompt, efficient, and effective first aid services and training to the Queen's community. Since its formation, the unit has become a fixture on campus, attending Orientation Week events, Alumni Weekend events, intramural sports events, football games, convocation ceremonies, formals, concerts, and numerous other activities.
In September 1999, the role of Queen's First Aid significantly changed as we adopted an on-call system to complement our presence. Under the current system, two Queen's First Aid responders are "on-call" on the Queen's campus, meaning that they are equipped and ready to respond to any medical emergencies in or around campus when dispatched by the Queen's Campus Security Emergency Report Center. The on-call service runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during the regular academic year.
Queen's First Aid is also known as No. 970 Queen's University Division of the St. John Ambulance Brigade of Canada. The Queen's First Aid unit is one of the few independent divisions of the Brigade on a Canadian university campus. This association with St. John Ambulance provides access to a national organization and a consistently high and current standard of training. Queen's First Aid volunteers are qualified with St. John Ambulance Standard First Aid, Level C CPR, Advanced Medical First Responder Level 1 (AMFR1), and Semi-Automated External Defibrilation (AED).
Queen's First Aid consists of approximately 40 dedicated student volunteers including a Director, Training Coordinator, Operations Coordinator, Community Services Coordinator, Duties Coordinator and a Communications Coordinator. Support also comes from Supervisors within the unit, a Faculty Advisor, as well as the AMS, Campus Security, and Environmental Health & Safety.
Financial support is received through non-academic student fees and private donations, which are used to offset the costs of first aid supplies, advanced equipment and training. Queen's First Aid also provides First Aid and CPR courses to interested Queen's students throughout the year. Qualified instructors within our unit run these courses. Each member of the unit is expected to volunteer a minimum of 6 hours per week for first aid duties. As well, all members must attend monthly training meetings.
Standard Level of Care
Upon joining the team all members must possess current Standard First Aid and CPR Level "C". Every fall, members are required to complete the St. John Ambulance Advanced Medical First Reponder Level 1 Program (a 40 hour intesive training course.) This course includes not only standard first aid techniques (bandaging, splinting, burn care, environmental/medical conditions, etc.) but many advanced skills/techniques as well (advanced head/spinal injury management, advanced airway management, AED, oxygen administration, advanced drug/alcohol training, etc.)
Continuous Improvements
Throughout the year, training sessions are organized by the Training Coordinator and are meant to refresh skills and maintain high standards of patient care. As part of routine training, members practice oxygen administration, advanced airway management, AED protocol, among other techniques. Facilitators of these sessions are not limited to qualified instructors, but in the past have included guest speakers invited from local ambulance crew, medical staff from Faculty of Health Sciences and trainers from Queen's varsity teams.
