HOW DO WE TRAIN? 

The Scottish Ambulance Service in conjunction with Heartstart (uk) provide full training for all volunteers followed by regular training and refresher courses.

The initial training took place over a full weekend with 9 volunteers and several trainers who were Heartstart staff or existing first responders from other units. All the training was done in the form of practical work using training mannequins and training defibrillators. The trainers all acted out different scenarios to show the differing types of call that can come through ie. asthma attack, chest pain, sudden collapse etc. The volunteers then practiced their newly learned skills in front of an examiner from the Ambulance service.

This was followed by a brief written test on the Sunday afternoon and the volunteers were then told whether they had passed or failed. Thankfully, everyone passed.

The training was then completed with the next batch of 6 volunteers who again all passed and we were ready to go with 15 fully trained responders. Each responder will then re-qualify every year.

There is formal ongoing training every 3 to 6 months for all the volunteers with additional "home training" taking place constantly using the training mannequins held at the co-ordinators house and the health centre.