Why Quality and Knowledgeable First Aid Instructors Are Essential - Part 2
Why Qualities of An Ideal First Aid Instructor Matter Part 2
Ideally, a first aid instructor should also have amazing interpersonal skills. They should be compassionate, patient, great communicators, and know how to manage diverse classrooms. We have all had that one person who may rub us the wrong way or seems uninterested in what we are saying. As an instructor, being able to see this as a challenge and propel forward to create the most engaging class and have the most difficult participants come to you at the end of the class saying they actually learned something is how success should be benchmarked. So often as soon as instructors have a difficult participant, they write them off within the first 5 minutes. Quality instructors can recognize participants who do not want to be in a class for mandatory training, yet can use their own inclusive personalities to change the perceptions of all their participants. This brings us to our next quality;
The instructors should be friendly toward their students!
Nobody wants to feel intimidated by their teacher! First aid trainers should create a welcoming environment for people to learn comfortably and quickly. Participants should always feel comfortable enough to ask questions and raise concerns. The old saying 'there are no stupid questions', is incredibly important with participants as we want everyone to feel free to ask the questions that they may have. The Instructor should understand the participant’s comfort level, and motivate them to want to participate. First-aid instructors should know how to work with different kinds of people.
A great first aid instructor should be a people person and be able to deal with culturally diverse participants. They must be calm and compassionate and come up with solutions for any learning issues. Everyone learns differently, and we all have different levels of comfort when we are in a group setting, especially when we don't know the people around us. Pulling engagement from a diverse group can be challenging, but there are many resources available that can be used. Typically, as soon as participants can get up move around, and work together in a scenario, they become more comfortable working together and asking questions.
They should be knowledgeable about first aid and health care topics!
A knowledgeable instructor should have an in-depth understanding of first aid topics, regulatory standards, first aid skills, and some understanding of health care. They should be confident in their skills and knowledge. They should clearly understand their course components. Nothing is worse than asking an instructor a question and having them answer 'you can google it', or 'because it's just that way' without any explanation of the how and why. People tend to remember things better if they understand how something works, or why it works that way. It's also important to mention that instructors shouldn't make up an answer because they don't know, but they should take the time to find the correct answer along with explaining the how and why.
They should understand their responsibility of providing first aid training!
Instructors should feel passionate about teaching potentially life-saving skills to their participants. That passion should resonate with the participants when they leave the class. They must have a sense of responsibility towards society and be sincere with their teaching. First aid training really is underrated, underutilized life skill. They should follow regulatory procedures and help students that require individual attention. Everyone can tell if you love or hate your job, and this is more transparent when it comes to teaching. If you are unenthusiastic about your job and give only the bare minimum, this is something that every single participant sitting in your classroom will be able to see. If you can be engaging, excited and passionate about why you are teaching, participants will retain more, and actually care about why they are learning these skills.
They should be creative!
In this day and age with people so preoccupied, instructors need to get creative to capture the participant's undivided attention. It's important that each participant leave their first aid class feeling confident. Learning should be made interactive, hands-on, memorable and engaging for candidates. Mock wound care scenarios are a great way to get creative and promote critical thinking along with group interaction with hands-on practice.
They should have a passion to teach!
Knowing first aid concepts is not enough. A first aid instructor should have the necessary instructor certification that helps them learn how to teach. Effective teaching skills are a definite must. Life Start sets up its instructors for success by providing a specially written instructor program, tools and tricks, feedback and a quality assurance program. We believe if we can create a network of instructors that have passion, and drive we can change how first aid is taught and learning outcomes.
In Summary
Knowledgeable first-aid instructors are crucial to basic first-aid training. They not only prepare individuals to care for injured or sick people in emergencies but also train them to be alert to their environment and make smart decisions. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is that every participant leaves their first aid class with the knowledge and the confidence to apply the skills they learned in the first aid class, and this relies heavily on quality instructors. After all, it's really a matter of life and death!