Basic First Aid Skills Examination Question Bank Answers

Regardless of whether you are taking the basic first aid certification under the Domestic Red Cross, the American Heart Association (AHA) or the Department of Emergency Management, 90% of the test answers focus on the five major modules of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), airway foreign body obstruction, trauma and hemostatic dressing, common emergency treatment, and sudden accidental injury response. The scoring differences of different systems will be marked in the corresponding test points. There is no need to answer scattered questions, and you can pass the test by grasping the core test points.

I have taken the first aid certificates of three systems, and taken more than 20 community and corporate first aid trainings. I have seen too many people answer hundreds of questions and end up failing because of the differences in requirements of different systems. What impressed me most was that a student who worked as a delivery boy last month memorized it and searched online for a week. On the miscellaneous questions, when taking the AHA certification exam, he lost points on the depth of CPR compressions. He said that the depth he carried before was "at least 5 centimeters." It turned out that the latest AHA requirement is that it cannot exceed 6 centimeters. During the actual operation, he pressed down to 7 centimeters. Key points were deducted and he had to pass the make-up exam.

Talking back to the regular test points of CPR, the compression frequency of the two systems is now unified, 100-120 times/minute, which is almost the speed at which you sing "Little Apple". Many training teachers will teach this little trick, and it is easy to remember. The compression-to-ventilation ratio is also uncontroversial. For single-person rescue, it is 30:2 for both adults and children (except newborns). The AED test points are simpler. The answer to "Are there any contraindications" that is often tested is that there are no absolute contraindications. It can be used as long as the patient loses consciousness and stops breathing and heartbeat. Even if a pacemaker is installed, it is enough to stick the electrodes away from the pacemaker. You must also remember to wipe the sweat on the patient's chest wall and move to a dry place first if he is in water. These are all divided questions.

After talking about CPR, which is the easiest to score, let’s talk about the Heimlich maneuver that everyone is most familiar with. The pitfalls in this area are basically in the treatment of special groups. For commonly tested operations for adults and children over 1 year old, the answer is that the rescuer stands behind the patient, aligns his fists with the two horizontal fingers above the navel, and thrusts upward and inward quickly. However, if you encounter pregnant women or patients who are very fat and cannot wrap their arms around the waist, the scoring standards of different systems are different. If you are taking the test of the National Red Cross Society, the answer is "chest impact method". If you are taking the AHA test, chest impact or finding a hard table corner/chair back to impact the upper abdomen are both correct. Also, infants under 1 year old must not use the Heimlich. They need to alternate 5 back pats + 5 chest compressions until the foreign body is discharged. This is a frequently wrong question, and many people misunderstand it.

The test points for hemostasis in trauma are actually not difficult. The easiest thing to test is the location of finger pressure to stop bleeding. The arterial blood pressure is proximal to the heart and the veins are blood pressure distal. Just don’t do the opposite. The use of tourniquets also has system differences. The Red Cross requires loosening once every 40-50 minutes for 1-2 minutes each time. The AHA requires loosening once every 60 minutes. Just look at your corresponding system when taking the test. The point that you must not make a mistake is that the tourniquet cannot be tied to joints such as the cubital fossa and popliteal fossa. It must be tied to the flat limb near the heart near the wound. During the last simulation test, a student directly tied it to the cubital fossa for convenience and was directly judged as failed. Don't step on this pitfall.

By the way, there is another test point that has been revised in the past two years. The old textbooks said that patients with epileptic seizures should put towels and chopsticks in their mouths to prevent biting their tongues. Now, the latest guidelines from the Red Cross and the AHA do not recommend this. It may cause suffocation or tooth damage. The correct answer is to move the patient to a safe place and turn sideways to prevent vomit suffocation. If you have memorized the old questions before, you must update this knowledge point quickly.

Let’s talk about common emergencies, such as heat stroke. Many people’s first reaction is to give Huoxiang Zhengqi water. In fact, the correct answer in the test is to move the person to a cool and ventilated place, take off a tight jacket, and wipe the body with cold water to physically cool down. If you are conscious, add dilute salt water. If you have severe heat stroke, call 120 directly. There is also the principle of "rinse off the bubble cover and send it away" for burns. You must not apply toothpaste, soy sauce, red syrup, etc., which will only aggravate the infection. This question is taken every year, but every year some people answer it wrong. If bitten by a cat or dog, the first step is to wash the wound with running soapy water and clean water alternately for more than 15 minutes. Try not to bandage the wound (unless the bleeding cannot be stopped). Get a rabies vaccine as soon as possible. This is also a test point that appears in almost every exam.

To be honest, the basic first aid exam is essentially a test of whether you can save people, not whether you are familiar with memorizing the questions. In many places, the practical exercises account for a much higher proportion than the written exam. I have seen many people memorize the answers so well that they bend their arms like noodles during the practical exercises. They cannot reach the depth at all, and they still can't pass. If you really want to get a certificate and still be able to use it, it is better to spend two hours finding a teaching tool to practice pressing, which is more effective than memorizing a hundred questions.

One final reminder: if you encounter a controversial question that you are not sure about, give priority to reading the official textbooks provided by the institution you are applying for. Don't blindly search for answers online. Many of them are old content from several years ago and have long been out of date.