08 - Bleeding

Bleeding is the eighth title of Action Training Systems' Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) series, and SkillsTrain, the authorised ATS distributor in South Africa, supplies it locally as part of that series. It covers controlling blood loss, the skill that most directly buys a patient time.

The title sets out the general considerations in a bleeding emergency, including the risk that it leads to shock, then describes the three types of external bleeding, arterial, venous and capillary, and how to tell them apart. It demonstrates the care of external bleeding using direct pressure, pressure dressings and tourniquets, then turns to internal bleeding, its types, causes and the signs and symptoms that point to it, and the management a responder provides. It is aimed at EMRs and first responders who need to recognise and control bleeding fast.

The content follows the United States National EMS Education Standards for the Emergency Medical Responder, and As an ATS EMS title it belongs to a library that ATS accredits through CAPCE, the Commission on Accreditation for Prehospital Continuing Education, where each online interactive course carries one hour of continuing education and counts as Distributive Education under the NREMT National Continued Competency Program. It uses the same teach, test and track model as the rest of the ATS interactive range: a learner is assessed as they work through the material, and any section answered incorrectly is replayed before they can move on. The programme runs about 15 minutes and is supplied on USB or as a classroom streaming option, individually or as part of the complete 25-title EMR series.

Within the same EMR series, SkillsTrain also supplies Respiratory Compromise, Shock and Cardiovascular, so the modules that deal with blood loss and circulation train together.