Using distance training to deliver first aid training

The St John Ambulance organization in Alberta issues over 100,000 first aid certificates each year (an 80% market share). The success of the organization is attributed to a province-wide infrastructure of volunteer public first aid providers and over 2000 volunteer instructors in industry and other spheres. In 1998 St John Ambulance piloted the use of CD-ROMs for teaching, producing two courses. One was a first aid course and the other was a babysitter course. The experience of the pilot programmes will allow the digital material to be transferred to our Website. Once this is done people around the world will be able to receive the self-paced learning components. Hands-on evaluation of skills, however, is mandatory to certification. Mass training where certification is required therefore requires a mixture of distance learning and hands-on testing, reinforcing the need for trained evaluators to be available to the population.