BY UBON EKANEM, CALABAR – The Nigeria Red Cross Society (NRCS) has ended a three-day strategic engagement of journalists in Cross River State with a charge that media practitioners keep themselves abreast with appropriate international best practices for first aid treatment.
The programme exposed participants to skills on various methods of First Aid treatment and drills on the best approach of evacuating injured victims from accident scenes to secure and safe environments prior to their being moved to the nearest facility for proper medical attention.
Addressing participants at the programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) First Aid and Pre-hospital Care Field Officer, Mr Omoruyi Daniel Edobor urged media practitioners to always respond appropriately, bearing in mind that First Aid treatment is purely an emergency pre hospital medical care provided for accident victims.
According to him, this process is undertaken carefully and administered on victims before they are securely and safely moved to nearby medical outreach for adequate and proper medical care.
He also said it is important for journalists to be conversant with appropriate medical terminologies associated with First Aid treatment, especially as patients require humane assurances that no matter the degree of injury sustained, their chances of survival is guaranteed
Edobor said given that some journalists most often engaged in frontline operations during conflict situations, the importance of acquiring proper skills in First Aid treatment cannot be overemphasized, stressing that the training aimed at further expose them on the best approach in managing emergency situations which require urgent medical attention.
The ICRC Field Officer said as an organisation, the Red Cross is purely an international humanitarian outfit established by an act of Parliament through the Geneva convention to provide care, first aid treatment to the injured and victims of conflict situations, irrespective of race, religion and tribe and that volunteers are expected to develop a high sense of passion for the job in order to excel.
The seasoned Instructor and Trainer, with high knowledge of global practices and most recent technics in First Aid encouraged Media practitioners to be actively involved in volunteerism as part of humanitarian service to the respective communities and the society at large.
Highlights of the training programme was the presentation of complete sets of compressed First Aid kits to each of the media practitioner in attendance.
