Teaching Wound Care and Bandaging: An Historical Perspective

Abstract

For many years, first-aid courses included a great variety of bandaging and splinting techniques. In the second edition of the American Red Cross textbook, Advanced First Aid & Emergency Care (1979),1 for example, 22 bandaging techniques are described and illustrated. Many of these bandages were also included in Standard First Aid when it was a lecture/demonstration course about 20 hours long. Yet in Emergency Response,2 the American Red Cross textbook for a first responder course that supplanted Advanced First Aid in 1993, only 1 bandage is described and shown—a simple gauze roller or elastic pressure bandage to control bleeding. Until the last decade of the 20th century, American Red Cross courses were widely accepted as the standard for first-aid training, and they are still among the most popular. The content and objectives of their courses are fairly representative of what was taught in first-aid courses, including both the Standard First Aid course designed for lay people and the Advanced First Aid course (about 50 hours long) designed for professionals. Starting in the 1980s, Standard First Aid was reduced to a 1-day course, including Adult CPR, and the first-aid content was reduced to a few hours. Most of the bandaging and splinting techniques were dropped. And whereas Advanced First Aid remained in the course catalog until 1993, the textbook was not revised after 1979. This dramatic change in the content and apparent objectives of first aid courses raises several questions: