General Principles
General Principles
Basic medical care should be provided to an ill or injured victim, until more advanced care arrives or the person recovers. It is a life-saving medical technique that a non-medical person or a lay person can be trained to perform with minimal equipment.
There are three main aims followed for medical care is preserving life, promoting recovery and prevent further harm.
- Preserve life the overriding aim of all medical care, including first aid, is to save lives
- Prevent further harm also sometimes called prevent the condition from worsening, this covers both external factors, such as moving a patient away from any cause of harm, and applying first aid techniques to prevent worsening of the condition, such as applying pressure to stop a bleed becoming dangerous.
- Promote recovery first aid also involves trying to start the recovery process from the illness or injury, and in some cases might involve completing a treatment, such as in the case of applying a plaster to a small wound
