RYA First Aid

The RYA one-day course covers all the usual first aid subjects, but from a boating perspective. It is aimed at anyone who goes afloat, whether on inland waters, rivers, estuaries or on cross-channel passages.

In a medical emergency, a little first aid knowledge and immediate action can save lives, especially in remote locations. This one-day course is designed to provide a working knowledge of first aid for people using small craft and to support skippers.

It fulfils the requirements for:

• professional skippers working under the Maritime and Coastguard Agency Codes of Practice for Small Vessels Operated Commercially;
  the Senior First Aid certificate needed by offshore racers subject to World Sailing's regulations on first aid training (OSR 4.08.4);
  the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations, 1981 for the purposes of Emergency First Aid at Work.

The subjects specific to boating include:

• the recovery position in a confined space
• CPR, including the drowning protocol
• cold shock and hypothermia from immersion and/or exposure
• seasickness and dehydration
• medical assistance or advice by VHF
• helicopter rescue