Training to save lives: FZS organised 12-hour first aid training sessions for park and reserve staff

Ensur­ing the safe­ty of both vis­i­tors and staff is a cru­cial respon­si­bil­i­ty for those work­ing in nation­al parks and nature reserves. Many of these pro­tect­ed areas are locat­ed far from med­ical facil­i­ties, where the arrival of an ambu­lance or res­cue team may take con­sid­er­able time. In such cir­cum­stances, the abil­i­ty of staff to pro­vide imme­di­ate first aid can make a deci­sive dif­fer­ence.

To strength­en this capac­i­ty, the Frank­furt Zoo­log­i­cal Soci­ety orga­nized inten­sive 12-hour first aid train­ings for employ­ees of 10 nation­al parks and 2 nature reserves in Carpathi­ans. Over the course of two days, par­tic­i­pants stud­ied a basic pro­gram cov­er­ing the recog­ni­tion of life-threat­en­ing con­di­tions, as well as the pro­vi­sion of first aid in cas­es of trau­ma, bleed­ing, burns, frost­bite, and oth­er emer­gen­cies.

The two-day for­mat was inten­tion­al­ly cho­sen to allow par­tic­i­pants to work through prac­ti­cal sce­nar­ios and rein­force step-by-step action algo­rithms. This approach ensures that staff can act quick­ly, effec­tive­ly, and with con­fi­dence when faced with real-life emer­gen­cies.

Work­ing in the field, it is essen­tial to car­ry a per­son­al first aid kit with basic med­i­cines, gloves, and ban­dages, – high­light­ed Svi­atoslav Yary­movych, the first aid train­er.

These train­ings are a vital step in ensur­ing that staff, who are often the first respon­ders in remote nat­ur­al areas, are ful­ly pre­pared to safe­guard lives and health until pro­fes­sion­al med­ical assis­tance arrives. The ini­tia­tive was made pos­si­ble with fund­ing from the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI).