Brownie and Junior First Aid Badges

We tackle First Aid badges every year with the Girl Scout Troop as knowing first aid is a valuable life skill. I have experienced three separate medical emergencies in the last few weeks and was thankful I had first aid training.

As with all my badge preparation, I check out the badge requirements from the badge handouts. I appreciate the suggestions provided in the badge handout and am thankful Girl Scouts allows me the ability as a Girl Scout Leader to come up with my own plan of attack.

With a multi-level troop, I tend to teach to the highest level but am thoughtful of the younger girls. Also, many of my girls have been with me for years so I know what we have done in the past. We have toured the police department three times and the fire department once. We have made personal first aid kits twice and made the troop first aid kit last year. My co-leader is an ER RN (which that sure has come in handy) and has spoken to the girls about first aid. Last year we earned the Brownie and Junior First Aid badges by using the Heimlich Heroes (https://heimlichheroes.com/) which I highly recommend!

Knowing all of our past experiences and the recent medical emergencies that I experienced, I wanted to have real life medical scenarios to practice with the girls. So I did what I normally do and googled "first aid scenarios" and low and behold found  "Test your skills in 10 emergency scenarios" 
https://boyslife.org/outdoors/outdoorarticles/139031/test-your-skills-in-ten-emergency-scenarios/ .  Well golly be, this could not be more perfect!!

I also found two different Girl Scout councils that had created curriculum for the badges - I LOVE IT when they do that! Girl Scouts of River Valley council has the BEST curriculum! I digress.

After the promise, law, and pledge (I'll share on another post), we read our Strong and Courageous women from Goodnight Stories from Rebel Girls 2, and then we did the two below activities, which I pulled directly from the Girl Scout of Colorado council's curriculum. Afterwards we went through the above real life scenarios.

Activity #1: “911, What is Your Emergency?”

Steps:

1. Ask the girls if they know what 911 means and its purpose.

2. Talk with the girls about the role of 911, how 911 can help and what they should do when calling

911. Girls should know the following information to provide 911, as well as try to stay as calm as

possible throughout the call:

• Name

• Phone number

• What happened

• What’s wrong

• Where they are

• How many people are hurt

• What is already being done

3. After reviewing the general 911 information, instruct the girls to role-play calls to 911 with one

another. Have one girl pretend to be the 911 dispatcher and the other girl pretend to be the caller and

then switch.

Activity #2: 911 Quiz Game

Badge Connection: Step 1—Find out how to get help from 911

Time Allotment: 15 minutes

Steps:

1. Have the girls stand in a group in the middle of the room. Identify one end of the room as “Call 911”

and the other end of the room as “Do Not Call 911”.

2. Instruct the girls that you will be giving them an emergency situation and they need to

determine when they should or should not call 911. After hearing the situation, they must go to

the side of the room they believe is the correct answer.

• Examples when you should call 911:

o Someone becomes suddenly dangerously ill

o Someone crashes a car in front of you

o You notice smoke in your home or that of a neighbor

o You hear gunshots

o You see a violent physical fight

There is a stranger lurking around your house

• Examples when you should not call 911:

o You notice graffiti on your home or in your neighborhood

o You have a question about the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning but don’t

suspect it in your home

o You or a family member have a minor illness

o Your pet or bike is missing when you come home

o You think a neighbor’s animal may be neglected

You have a fight with your friend

You play a game with your friend and pretend to have an emergency

3. After each situation and girls determine their answers, ask the girls why they chose or did not

choose to call 911 then reveal the correct answer. You can also ask the girls whom they should

call if the situation should go to a different authority and is not a call for 911.

**What would I do different?? I would have the scenarios on index cards and split the girls into smaller groups to act them out themselves. I'd provide the girls with first aid items to enhance the experience**