Children's Safety and First Aid Open Class Lesson Plan

This is a 45-minute practical open class lesson plan for parents of children aged 6-12 years old and class teachers in lower grades of primary schools. The core goal is to enable learners with zero medical background to independently predict the risk of injury to three types of high-risk children and master two items after the class. It is an on-site first aid operation that can be used immediately. There is no need to memorize complex theories. You can use it on the spot after learning it on the spot. This is a version I have run in 37 communities and 12 primary schools and held more than 70 public welfare classes. The absorption rate of knowledge points is 82% higher than the purely theoretical version.

To be honest, I ran into a lot of pitfalls when I first started doing this class. For the first class preparation, I printed dozens of pages of color manuals, covering everything from injury incidence rates to first aid principles. After a follow-up visit, 90% of the people who went home didn’t even read the manual, and couldn’t even remember where the Heimlich maneuver was performed. Later, I simply cut off all useless theories and focused on the three types of scenarios that accounted for 72% of the reasons for children's accidental medical treatment. They were: airway obstruction, hot fluid burns, falls from high places, and other fracture fixation and electric shock treatment. I won't talk much about it. In those extreme situations, calling 120 immediately is better than anything else. Ordinary people can save most of their lives if they can block the most common risks and deal with them correctly in the first three minutes of the accident.

In the first five minutes, I usually don’t show any high-end educational videos, but just cut two 10-second live clips shot by passers-by: one is a child downstairs in the community running away with a lollipop in his mouth and falling, the candy stuck in his throat and his face turned red, and the parents were patting him on the back. After these two clips were played, the people below who were scrolling through their phones all raised their heads. I didn’t need to say anything to know that this matter was not far away from me. The last time a class was held in a community in Chengxi District, a mother of two children was furious on the spot, saying that her eldest son had been stuck in a walnut last year. At that time, she spent a long time looking for tutorials on her mobile phone, but couldn't remember anything. Fortunately, her neighbor happened to be a nurse, and she took pictures of the foreign object after coming over a few times.

In the 15-minute risk prediction session, I will not read out the data dryly, but will use props to demonstrate: stuffing a jelly into the mouth of a soda bottle with a diameter similar to that of a child's airway. Oh, yes, I would also like to mention here that many colleagues who work in children’s education now advocate teaching safety knowledge to children from an early age. I think it is right, but really don’t put all the treasure on the baby. Children of a few years old will forget everything they see and eat. Adults should first take care of the risks. It is much more useful than teaching children to recite "Don't run to eat" 10 times. The two ideas do not conflict. If there are older children who come with their parents in the class, I will also teach them how to call an adult immediately when something happens and how to accurately report their home address and call 120.

The 20-minute practical session is the core. I will not talk about the medical principles of the abdominal thrust method. I will use a simulation doll to teach everyone to memorize a sentence: "Two fingers above the navel, press upward and inward quickly." Children under 1 year old should memorize "pat the back 5 times and press the chest 5 times alternately." Everyone has to go on stage to practice with the doll. I correct the movements next to me, and they can basically remember it after practicing it once. Here I would like to specifically talk about the issue of how to deal with burns, which is currently very controversial on the Internet. I will not directly criticize the old methods of applying toothpaste and soy sauce as wrong. I will only give you a practical case: last year, a child in our jurisdiction burned the back of his hand. His grandmother applied a thick layer of mint toothpaste. When he was sent to the hospital for debridement, he had to scrape off the toothpaste. Crying so hard that you almost lose your breath also increases the risk of infection; however, some experts from the burn department have mentioned that if it is a deep burn that is larger than the size of the baby's hand and the skin has broken and peeled off, do not shower in cold water for a long time, especially in winter, which can easily cause hypothermia. Just wrap it in a clean lint-free cloth and send it to the doctor immediately. I usually draw a very clear boundary for everyone: for small superficial burns (only redness and small blisters, the area is no larger than the baby's palm), just run cold water for 15-20 minutes, don't apply anything and go directly to the hospital; if the burn is large and the skin is broken, don't bother and send it directly. Both opinions are correct, but the applicable scenarios are different.

In the last few minutes, I basically did not summarize the knowledge points, but just told you a few honest words: I have been doing children's safety education for 6 years, and I have seen too many parents slap their thighs and say "I thought it was okay" when something happened. Really, the best first aid is always prevention beforehand. Move the hot water bottle 10 centimeters into the table, don't feed whole nuts to the child, and install a security net on the window. It will be more effective than learning 10 first aid methods. Before leaving, I give everyone a business card-sized card with simple drawings of Heimlich and burn treatment printed on the front, and the phone numbers of nearby pediatric emergency departments and first aid stations printed on the back. Just keep it in your wallet. It's best if you don't use it. If you really use it, you can take it out and look at it and you will know what to do at a glance.

Oh, yes, every time after class, someone asks me if I want to learn CPR. I usually advise not to rush. Cardiac arrest in children is mostly caused by foreign body obstruction. If you practice the Heimlich first, you can already block 90% of the fatal risks. If you are really interested, you can just take a special certification class later. You can bite off more than you can chew, and only the real knowledge can be used.