In March this year AMTD became an NCFE approved centre, this is in addition to us being an EDI approved centre. NCFE and EDI are in the top 4 awarding bodies in the country and we are proud to be approved by 2 such centres.
In Sept we were vistied by Christine Bennett who conducted our first External Moderator visit . This visit lasted 3 hours and Christine was thorough, professional and a real pleasure to work with.
We are thrilled with the level 1 grade we achieved and aim to maintain our high standards. We received no action points at all !
This achievment is a result of the close working relationship we have with our cutomer the British Legion and the excellent work carried out by Val Shaughnessy the training manager at the British Legion and Alison Meadows the internal moderator at AMTD the training centre.
AMTD have just had a very successful inspection from the inspection arm of the HSE. The inspector looked at all our First Aid courses, our trainers and assessors and all our administration procedures. The inspector was particularly impressed with our quality procedures and told us we were a “first class” training organisation!
This was a very rewarding experience for us all. We knew how good we were, but it is exceptionally gratifying to hear it from someone who has inspected many First Aid Training organisations. Thanks to all our “First Class” trainers and assessors and in particular Pat Scott who was observed on the day ! Thanks also to Mike Hope from Scout enterprises for his professional but approachable manner .
By Andy Dolan
Last updated at 8:52 PM on 25th February 2010
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A coroner demanded an overhaul of resuscitation training after hearing how a teenage swimmer was revived at a poolside, only to die when a lifeguard stopped giving her mouth-to-mouth too soon.
Sophie Konderak had a cardiac arrest moments after starting a training session at a leisure centre.
The 16-year-old was dragged from the water unconscious and young lifeguard Katy Butler began cardiopulmonary resuscitation – mouth-to-mouth breathing and chest compressions.
Swimming star: A lifeguard left Sophie Konderak to die after wrongly believing she had saved her life
Miss Butler, 23, who had never tried to revive a swimmer before, believed she had saved Sophie when she started breathing again.
However, she did not take the crucial step of checking for a pulse – to determine whether the heart had restarted – and unwittingly left Sophie dying on the wet floor.
Paramedics arrived four minutes later and resumed CPR, only to be asked by one of the lifeguards: ‘Why are you doing CPR? She’s alive,’ the hearing was told.
As a paramedic gave evidence to the inquest, the teenager’s distraught mother, Lesley, 46, broke down in tears and cried out: ‘It’s my child’s life, why didn’t anybody do anything?
Braunstone Leisure Centre’s lifeguards had received ‘insufficient training’
‘How could you just leave her lying there? She would have survived.’
The ambulance crew tried to revive Sophie, a talented swimmer who dreamed of winning an Olympic gold, with a defibrillator at the leisure centre in Braunstone, Leicester, on September 15 last year.
However, she was pronounced dead shortly afterwards at the city’s Royal Infirmary.
The inquest heard Sophie’s initial cardiac arrest was caused by an undiagnosed heart condition.
Heart expert Dr Christopher Duke said Sophie ‘would have survived’ if she had received continuous CPR. He said: ‘You don’t stop resuscitation just because a patient appears to be breathing. You only stop if there’s breathing and a pulse.’
The inquest on Wednesday heard that Miss Butler, who was employed by Leicester City Council and was performing CPR for the first time, spent four minutes trying to revive Sophie and believed she had succeeded when the teenager began breathing.
She said: ‘If a person is breathing we’re told to stop CPR and put them in the recovery position.’
Sophie’s heart was not restarted by defibrillator until 4.52pm – 14 minutes after she was pulled out of the pool.
The inquest heard the lifeguards had been trained by the Royal Life Saving Society, a charity which provides training and education in lifesaving.
Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Catherine Mason said she would write to the Resuscitation Council of the UK, which provides guidelines for life-saving techniques, to ask it to amend its training guidelines to include checking for a pulse.
Mrs Mason, coroner for Leicester and South Leicestershire, said: ‘The crucial point of this is that the CPR was stopped.
‘The guidelines should be changed so that from when CPR commences it is conducted until a medically qualified person arrives or the patient regains consciousness.’
After the inquest, Mrs Konderak and Sophie’s father, John, said the ‘shortfall in the level of training and equipment’ contributed to their daughter’s death.
They added: ‘We hope the coroner’s recommendations will lead to an improvement in lifesaving training and no further lives will be lost.’
Recently AMTD asked Laura for help in sourcing some First Aid Trainers and assessors to support their work with the East Cumbria Universitys.
Initially we were concerned that a recruitment company would not be able to source people with such specific skills and qualifications.
WOW were we wrong !
We were amazed at the response and have already worked with the some of the successful candidates.
Alison Meadows the MD of AMTD said
“Laura Hartley recruitment is very different to other recruitment agencies. She purely ran the advertising campaign for us and we received the responses and set up the interviews. This proved extremly successuful and cost effective for us ! ”
Did you know that AMTD are currently running first aid courses on the Falkland Islands ?
We get about a bit dont we ?
One of our associates Sarah Preston has been living in the Falklands for the past 12 months due to her husbands posting there. She is running first aid courses for AMTD and is due to train 10 of the fire fighters there next week .
A recent group of successful first aid students in the Falklands
Sarah will be returning to the UK this year and we look forward to seeing her and hearing about her adventures soon.
AMTD are pleased to announce they are working with the University of East Cumbria to produce an annual training plan for all their current first aid trained staff.
The first course has already taken place with positive feedback from all 11 employees.
AMTD were pleased also to welcome 2 new assessors who were involved on this course. Welcome to Andy Gow and Robin Camp who did a fanatstic job and were extremely professional and great to work with , thanks guys !
Over 50 people were seen in 2days by a qualified nurse offering a range of tests and here’s what some of them had to say about the event …
“I thought she was very friendly and approachable. She explained everything I needed to know about my results and I found it beneficial. ““The session with Alison, I thought was very good, relaxed and informative”
“Alison was the consummate professional, good manner, attentive (even after a long session) providing positive advice and support.”
“Alison was a lovely lady and extremely professional – only wish my doctor was as helpful!”
“I thought Alison was very nice & helpful as she also took the time to explain in detail.”
“I found Alison very helpful and informative.”
“I thought Alison was professional & also made you feel very relaxed”
“I was glad of the opportunity, as it is something that I would not have made an appointment with my GP to have checked and I appreciated the advice Alison gave.” Thank you for your kind comments ! Alison MD AM Training & Development Ltd
AMTD have just run a successful 3 day FAW for 7 people at Dutton’s carpets at Witton in Blackburn.
Wel done to all the delegates who took part it was a great 3 days !