Most Standard First Aid courses require multiple class meetings and take from 24 to 40 hours of attendance. Disaster First Aid takes 5 to 6 hours and can be done in one day. Essentials-only. "It's everything you need and nothing you don't need."
- David Baum, neighborhood organizer, Bellevue Washington

Standard First Aid advises "Call 911 or go to the Emergency Room." Both of these will be overwhelmed and probably won't be reachable. In Disaster First Aid you learn how to connect quickly with the Incident Command Center via the local Disaster Response Network in your area, report what you need, and get help as soon as possible.

Disaster First Aid is adapted directly from Paramedic and First Responder protocols, scaled down to citizen level. With DFA you will be able to do as much as anyone could do, when faced with the same circumstances and limitations.

If you’d like more details and information such as “Common (preventable) Deadly Things That Happen in Disasters”

see: Why Isn't Standard First Aid Good Enough?

This question comes up a lot. The main differences, in brief, are these:

“Standard First Aid” such as Red Cross, National Safety Council, and other traditional first aid courses, have a lot of information that’s interesting but won’t really be very useful in a disaster. Disaster First Aid has only the crucial essentials you need, to be able to do what needs to be done, quickly, simply, in an overwhelming emergency when medical help may not be available soon.

Disaster First Aid tells you what to do now, what to do later, and *S.T.A.R.T. rapid triage identifies who needs help worst and first, and who can wait, and provides the critical first-actions like opening the airway, bleeding control, and treatment for incipient shock.

 

Standard First Aid does not have the most important actions such Triage, and does not address time-bound priorities that can prevent loss of lives and limbs in multi-victim situations. Standard First Aid does not have an Action Outline 24-hour Disaster Response Plan. All of the above, Disaster First Aid does.

"Standard" First Aid courses assume that there will be only one injured person at a time. Disaster First Aid recognizes and handles the reality that there will be many.

Disaster First Aid ©1996-2010 V. Chames / Darkhorse Press United States