Understanding the Primary and Secondary Survey in First Aid: DRS ABCD and Beyond, Study notes of Voice

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Primary & Secondary SurveyPrimary & Secondary Survey

For those that have completed a rst aid course you should have gone over the DRS ABCD, but have you been told what you are actually trying to achieve by learning it? I'm amazed by how many people haven't gone through a secondary assessment prior to training with North-West First Aid. It's an important part of rst aid and it's not hard to do. Lets go through it together.

When we render rst aid we need to have a specic way to approach, assess and manage the scene safely. We deal with the most important issues rst, then with the lesser issues. In a real life situation adrenaline, fear, confusion, panic and uncertainty will most likely hinder our decisions and management. This is where having a guide can help keep us on the right track.

Theprimary survey ( DRS ABCD) is a guide which helps us to systematically and safely treat a casualty. The ndings of our primary survey will determine what treatment/management needs to be undertaken rst. We always try to identify the life threatening injuries rst such as not breathing, choking or severe bleeding and manage them. For example severe bleeding will come before a sprained/broken ankle.

Below is a breakdown of the DRS ABCD model with the added secondary survey.

We always check for Dangers First. What do you see?smell?hear? sense?

Does the casualty have a Response? Are they asleep? Do they respond to your voice? Can they open their eyes? Can they squeeze your ngers? Are they alive

If your casualty is not responding to you, we need to treat them as unconscious and need to Send For Help right away.

Once we identify and take care of the immediate life threats, we then proceed onto thesecondary survey. This is a head to toe examination of the casualty to see if there are other potential injuries such as, lacerations, deformity, embedded objects, broken bones or uid leaking from the ears/nose/mouth.

The above format is based on an unconscious casualty and therefore will be modied for a conscious person. A conscious and breathing person can tell you what is wrong with them, so while you do a visual head to toe examination ask your casualty how they feel.

If your casualty tells you they have pain, ask if they can describe it to you. If pain is in more than one place ask where it hurts the most? Don't move them unnecessarily, keep them calm, treat what you can and wait for emergency help.

Well there is a basic breakdown of the primary and secondary survey. Always remember when treating a casualty to stick to the basics which is DRS ABCD. Completing a rst aid course will help reinforce the above information, so if you haven't done a rst aid course before or are due to refresh it visit us at www.northwestrstaid.net for more info on our services.

Till next time

Alex

• Please note in an emergency always get emergency help.This information is intended to be used as a guide and should not replace the advice from medical professionals. Keep in mind, you may not be able to place a casualty into the recovery position as mentioned above. In this case follow the advice from medical professionals or "000" call taker.