Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Thursday 13 November 2008

First Aider!

Hmmm I had various posts scheduled to be published in this last week but it doesn't seem to have worked? As they all seem to have been published today? Ah well I must have done something funny with the posting times.....

ANYWAY.......

I am now the VERY proud holder of a First Aid at Work certificate! ...the proper, HSE, four day job!

I already have a paediatric first aid certificate ( a 3 day course) which I took last spring because I work with children as an Environmental Educator and playworker, Epi-pen training (which I have now updated 3 times in the last 18 months as it only lasts for 12 months in a school setting even though the certificate actually is valid for 3 years..) which allows me to help administer adrenaline to someone in the event of them having an anaphalaxis episode,

and a specialised two day "First Aid in the Outdoors" course which I did as part of my Forest School leader training in July this year.

BUT I now ( again) have a full First Aider certificate

I first did this training back in 1985 ( not 1990! I went and checked!) at work, I kept it up until I left work in the mid 90's...but then I (rather foolishly) let it lapse.

In 1985 it was a very different course, a lot more bandaging was involved as I recall, and if you failed anything you failed the whole course. Also the recusitation programme was MUCH more complicated back then. Apparently it has been changed because it was puting people off doing anything to help? in case they got it wrong? Hmm well if someone has stopped breathing, they will be dead in a few mins if no one does something..so IMO simplifying the guidelines is a Jolly Good Thing in my book!

I also worked during the 80's and 90's in a very specialised research establishment so had to do extra training in the sort of hazards I might encounter during my day to day working life..( HF and other nasty acids figured large, as did using breathing apparatus to get out of a toxic fume filled lab) ...I worked in a semiconductor research facility so we had some "interesting" training to deal with potential first aid cases !

Fast forward 30 years...and I am , once again, qualified to help people as a First Aider...perhaps not in quite such a hazardous environment but still...I can feel confident I know what I should be doing.

I have to thank Anubis Training, once again, for a wonderful course which made the complicated, seem easy.....And I am VERY proud of myself.....So sorry if I am blowing my own trumpet a bit..but I AM very proud of myself!
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5 comments:

  1. aromatic16 November 2008 at 03:34

    WELL DONE... and CONGRATULATIONS!! I am also very proud of you!!
    To do all of that when you are still not A1 is a fantastic achievement.
    You are a star!!
    Love Jane xxx

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  2. Sol16 November 2008 at 21:01

    I also worked in that type of environment, in Wafer fabrication. Were you growing silicon wafers? nice lovely acids that melted your bones through your flesh?

    Ahhhh my previous life was a weird and wonderful place compared to the 9-5 desk job I do now. One day I will discover 'what I want to do when I grow up'!"!!!!"!"!"!

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  3. Compostwoman16 November 2008 at 23:33

    Hi both!

    Jane THANK YOU for your lovely gift! I was very touched to get it....

    Slice of Life...yes, I worked as a research scientist in various Materials Science/electronics environments...I worked in Silicon and other substrate materials, also High Tc superconductors....

    oh what a difference to mucking out hens and holistic therapies and Forest Schools.....

    I miss ( slightly) the good salary..... but once where I worked got "agency-ised" by Maggie T and her "Next Steps" agenda, all the fun went out of it...........

    and so I escaped on vol redundancy with a good pay off...to get on with the rest of my life....

    Am very glad to be away from the various nasty acids and etches.......didn't like that aspect much....seen too much nasty stuff happen!

    It WAS a good time to be involved for a bit and I DID have a lot of fun...blue sky research is the place to be if you are young and keen and well qualified..

    but am much happier with my life, now....(!)

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  4. Penny Blogs17 November 2008 at 19:37

    You certainly should be proud of yourself - congratulations!

    Mr C suffers from a severe peanut allergy so I'm really pleased to hear of people doing Epi-pen training. Certainly something that can help to save lives if people know what they're doing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Compostwoman17 November 2008 at 19:48

    Hello Mrs C

    Ooh poor Mr C, that must make life a little "difficult!" to say the least.

    I carry an epi pen, also...and so many children seem to have severe allergies that I wasn't suprised it was a standard part of the Paediatric FA course I did last year.

    Worrying though.... :~'

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Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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