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Twenty-fivemothers attended a community training workshop known as PedFACTs on 7th November. The event was organised by Mafraq Hospital in collaboration with the Parent Teacher Association (FOAM),at Al Dar Mushrif School in Abu Dhabi. The free-to-attend workshop gaveparents the education and confidence to care for sick or injured children, to use a child car safety seat correctly, and to deliver high-quality,injury-appropriate first aidduring an emergency.
Mafraq Hospital’s award-winningChild Safety programme, spearheaded by Dr TaisserAtrak,Chairman, Department of Paediatrics at Mafraq Hospital, is accredited by the American Academy of Pediatrics. As part of the programme, today’s PedFACTs course was delivered by Mafraq Hospital’s experienced team of paediatricians, life support instructors and Baby Shop’s child safety experts. Mafraq Hospital is owned and operated by the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company PJSC (SEHA).
The PedFACTs course is designed to help those who care for young children provide paediatric first aid to a child who suddenly becomes ill or is injured. “At home, mothers and other caregivers need to know what to do for minor injuries as well as for emergency situations,” said Dr Atrak. “Usually,giving first aid involves simple, common-sense procedures that are intended to keep a child’s medical condition from becoming worse.
“It’s important to remember that first aid does not take the place of proper medical treatment, it’s very often a stop-gap. There are many situations where a parent or caregivers may need to provide first aid until the emergency medical services arrive, or a doctor or nurse can take responsibility for the child’s medical care,” said Dr Atrak.
Statistics show that road accidents ranks as the leading cause of child deaths in the UAE, closely followed by drowning, falling and getting heat burns. Dr Atrak said, “Given the high numberof child deaths due to traffic accidents, training parents and caregivers about child car-seat safety – why car seats should be used on every journey, and the importance of fitting them correctly – is an essential measure to reduce the numbers and severity of incidents. It’s a natural extension to our regular child safety programme.”
Since the introduction of the hospital’s Child Safety programme in 2008,it has provided essential and easy-to-follow child safety advice and training to over 10,000 mums and dads, caregivers, teachers, nannies, school bus monitors and other people who take care of children. The PedFACTstraining alone has been given to an estimated 1000 caregivers. The programme, among child road safety and CPR for families’ initiatives,has received the highest recognition from Abu Dhabi’s Leadership and has been awarded the Abu Dhabi Award, the Abu Dhabi Medical Distinction Award fromHAAD (Health-Authority Abu Dhabi), among others.
Dr Atrak added, “It is incredible to be recognised by such prestigious Awards, but the most important achievement for us is the number of accidents we are able to prevent as a result of the simple first aid or CPR skills learned bymothers and nannies during our workshops. I would encourage anyone who deals with children to attendPedFACTsand child safety and first aid courses – it may help save a child’s life.”
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