St John Ambulance Society

Sorry to butt in on your thread Is there anyone here that volunteers for St John's Ambulance at their university's Links unit and can tell me what sort of time commitment is involved, please?

Hey you're not butting in, questions like yours is what the thread is for.

Sorry I dunno about LINKS specifically, I'm sure someone else does know though. If it's anything like other divisions you barely have to help out at all if you don't want to but you will probably get asked to come on duties a lot but you don't have to go to them.

Ahh ok, that sounds good, just wanted to check that you don't get tied into doing a certain amount of hours when you sign up, as my free time is so different each week.
Thanks for answering.

Hi guys I just joined this society as I'm a new Sja member at a division in London. Started my first training day this week and I have yet to volunteer at an event.

Nice one, always great news when someone joins SJA

What did you think of the training? Are you feeling confident about your first event? It took me ages before I felt confident, I was an observer for ages lol.

Well heres to you having a great time in SJA!

Well it was just basic training of CPR and recovery position which I done many times before so it was not something new for me. Obviously the more I do it the better . Well I am an observer too, so I guess it would take me some time to start feeling confident about what I am doing!

Cool you already are familiar with CPR, personally I feel quite uncomfortable acting out a role play when we get assessed.

Let us know how your first event goes and good luck!

Cool you already are familiar with CPR, personally I feel quite uncomfortable acting out a role play when we get assessed.

Ahh ok, that sounds good, just wanted to check that you don't get tied into doing a certain amount of hours when you sign up, as my free time is so different each week.
Thanks for answering.

as others have answered the time commitment is variable, the principle concern is if you commit to something fulfill the commitment or let people know in as much time as possible, 'no-shows' are bad for you , bad for SJA , bad for patients and bad for events.

Is that because you don't feel confident in your ability, or just the general awkwardness that comes from being watched?

I emailed the SJA people at my uni and will be going to my first meeting next week, hopefully starting on a trainee first aid course in February if I can get a place, exciting stuff

I'm a LINKS member who's currently undergoing my training to become an ETA.

I'd say my most memorable duty was a dubstep event at the SU, we had 4 people go to hospital and quite a few others treated.

There people that went to hospital were:

1) Male found unconscious on dance floor, O2 given and carry chaired up to our post He came round and we found out he had taken a form of ketamine as well as loads of alcohol.

2) Female found on floor outside, taken to first aid post by carry chair where she then became unconscious.

3) Female allegedly punched in face, complaining of C-spine pain. Given entonox and fully immobilised on scoop and then carried to to the ambulance after a long wait (we were on hold to 999 for 10 minutes before we could get through as it was that busy)

4) Male found with reduced consciousness on bench outside venue, very low sats so O2 give through a NP airway as mouth wouldn't open due to trismus. He was the worst as the ambulance crew blued him straight into resus at hospital.

It was a very interesting duty and we had a good debrief the day after. There have been lots of good duties that I've been on but that one was probably the most interesting.

Yeah LINKS units are good for duties depending on your relationship with the Student Union/University. If you cover events at the SU then you can expect lots of alcohol/drug intoxication and accidental injuries (obviously you can also help with other unit's events in your area). Since there is no rank in LINKS you don't have the people who think they are amazing and better than people because they are an "officer" either.

What you have to remember is that people who hold Officer appointments do so because they have increased levels of responsibility and accountability for service delivery. In a lot of places they are also often very experienced AFAs, ETAs or Health Professionals.

there's only three roles on Duty i've never done ( gold commander, Medical Incident Officer , Lead Paramedic ) ... and two of them are because i'm not a Doctor / Paramedic respectively, and the third (gold) because i'm not a County Priory Officer ...

x