Effective First Aid in your Studio

Hello friends, I'm Amanda Barr. And I'm Rebecca Lou Brennan. And welcome to Dance Principals United, the podcast. Together, we are passionate about helping studio owners with the business of running their studio. Join us as we talk everything from marketing systems, studio culture, motherhood, life and everything in between. This is the Dance Principles United Podcast. Hi friends and welcome to the Dance Principles United Podcast. I am so excited to be joined here by Caitlin from DanceAid. Hi Caitlin, thanks for joining us.

Hi Amanda, thanks for having me.

So excited to have you here. You are a wealth of knowledge in all things first aid for dancers and I know that so many of our listeners will get so much out of this chat, so I'm super excited. So do you want to tell me a little bit about yourself and how you fell into first aid for dancers?

Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up dancing and spending a lot of time in the studio and it was such a passion for of mine and I loved, loved my dancing years and then it sort of came down to, you know, you finished school, what are you going to do? I went on and started studying dancing. So I started a full time course here in Adelaide and then not too long into that course I actually got injured. So I took a break from it and then unfortunately I just, I never went back and picked it up. So from there I went and studied nursing. So I did my nursing degree and I still, you know, was sort of doing recreational dance on the side and staying a part of the industry. But I, yeah, went and studied, studied nursing and I've been a cardiac specific nurse for the last 10 plus years.

Oh, wow, that's different.

Yeah, I know. It's definitely a very big area and passion of mine as well, you know, cardiac specific. So I'm all the heart and I have, yes, some extra qualifications in it. I then maybe I've sort of four or five years ago I was looking for a bit of a career change. I had had, I've just had some kids as well, so I've got two little girls and I, you know, it was really wanting to come back to that dance, you know, my dance passion. So I had a chat with Gabrielle Robinson, the director at Empower Dance here in Adelaide, who's an RTO and run certificate courses in national qualifications and as part of those courses, you know, first aid is a core, core subject and mandatory. So we thought why don't we, you know, put our heads together and come up with something that's more specific in a first aid course. And ever since I've just jump straight in and have loved it. So it's blending my two passions again, of dance and nursing into. Into dance aid, which is first aid.

I love that so much. And, you know, that's super interesting because you've obviously had a background, I presume you've worked in hospitals and all of the things and. And seen, you know, obviously some very serious things if you're working as a cardiac nurse. But then to kind of come back to this, you know, know, incredible world that we all absolutely love, you know, we're all such passionate dancers. It's like it's born and bred, like, you know what I mean? It's just part of our soul. So I love that and I love this specificness of, you know, having, you know, a first aid course that's just for dancers because, like, there's specific things we need to talk about, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And that was part of it, you know, having a specific course that's relatable and people want to do. I feel, you know, first aid's got that stigma of it's just a tick box and it's boring, it's not relevant. It's a big commitment, you know, a day or two, often in the classroom as well. So I was super excited for the challenge. To write something that was going to be well received and be accessible and relatable for people to be able to do. Which, yes, as how dance aid sort of came about as well.

That's amazing. And that's so amazing that you can offer that through empower dance to all the amazing people doing, you know, their RTO programs and all of that. Because as you said, like, I gotta be honest, obviously I've done lots of first aid courses, as we all have, and sometimes you're just sitting there going, this is so boring. Especially when I've gone to a few times, I've been to, you know, ones in Wollongong near me, and, you know, they're talking about, like, workplace safety with, like, heavy machinery, for example. And I'm like, oh, this is boring. This is not what I need as a teacher or a studio owner. And I love that there's something that's more specific to that.

Yeah, absolutely. So because we've written it, we've been able to, you know, obviously it's a national qualification and it's standardized. Right. So it has to have certain. It has to have snake bites and it has to have. Obviously isn't super relevant to us, but I can, you know, make snake bites. This tiny little bit of it and.

Go for this long.

Yeah, exactly. We can just touch on that and I can make the injury section and. And things that is more relevant, you know, this big and spend a lot more time on it. Yes, so. And most first aid courses have to be generalized because they have people coming in from all different walks of life and, you know, different careers and industry. So that's why we. Yeah. Thought there was such a need and for it.

That's so good because hopefully we are not treating too many snake bites in our studios because. Oh, my God, can you imagine? Oh, my God.

It's funny, actually, I. I get to travel the country, obviously with it and see everyone. And I have had a few stories of people saying we have actually had a snake in the studio and we've had a snake in the driveway outside. I know some, mainly some of the Queensland studios and wa. But it still, still, you know, could.

Be relevant, so you never know. Right. Oh, my God. The things that we deal with in our studios. So obviously, you know, in the training you've been able to really specify and get more specific on things like injuries because, you know, there's obviously common injuries that we see in our studios a lot.

Right, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So, yeah, injuries, I cover. Try and cover all of the main ones. So, you know, obviously a lot of hip and back and also knee and ankle injury, something that we're ever seeing more. So nowadays with the acro style coming into our industry, a lot more, we're actually seeing bone bruising and also some concussions and head knocks and things. So some things that we don't even think about. You know, we know the soft tissue stuff. Right. And we're usually all over that when someone twists their knee or does an ankle or whatever. But some of the more sort of physical stuff, like the acro that's bringing in more bone bruising and concussions and things that dislocations and fract are growing as well because of it a little bit. So of course they're sort of the main sort of injuries that we're seeing at the moment.

Absolutely. And you know, at my studio we had all star cheer as well. So the concussions was a big thing for me, always making sure my staff were trained well because that can be so serious moving forward.

It absolutely can and we've seen it in the media. So there's a lot of concussion awareness mainly around that physical contact sport, you know, so like footy or running. So not super relevant to us. But it is in terms of, you.

Know, that it is an all star. Yeah, yeah, yep.

The cheer and the acro, you know, if they're doing the same movement or getting. Having a repetitive motion or flies and things, that they're potentially going to fall on their head. And it is that one that goes under the radar in terms of it might not happen instantly. So we need that education and awareness to be able to recognize the signs and symptoms after the fact, you know, for a few days and even weeks and also be educated to be able to hand over and tell that kids next of Kino parents to be looking out for this because they, you know, fell on their head or they got a foot to the head in contemporary or whatever.

That handover. Yeah, that handover. That's a really big part.

Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Absolutely. And you know, for me as a teacher, you know, I always felt confident, like you said around, you know, sprained ankles, twisted ankle, like that kind of stuff. I felt confident with the things that always worried me. And I presume that a lot of teachers and studios say this more so now is the anaphylactic shocks, you know, things like that, that can happen to students so easily. That is obviously very serious. Obviously asthma attacks were all kind of, you know, used to because they've kind of. But like that, you know, the amount of kids we had EpiPens on standby for like all of that, that's a lot to navigate.

Yeah, absolutely. So we know that now the statistics are 1 in 10 kids has an anaphylactic reaction to food. Has a food allergy. Yes.

That's crazy.

One in ten. So if, you know, you haven't got many at the studio at the minute, it's going to grow in the next few years. So it's just how our environment things are happening that these food aller are becoming ever prevalent and it's going away from just the basic nuts. It's. Kiwi is a huge one. Kiwi at the moment is a big allergen. Yeah. For some reason. So it's. We need to empower people to not be scared and not be afraid of the EpiPen and know what to do. Because a lot of the time we've got little people who might not be able to do it themselves or we might have bigger, you know, teenage kids who. Who might be afraid because it's a needle or they might be too unw. Well, they might have progressed their anaphylaxis to a point where they can't actually get their pen out and give it to themselves. So we need to be all across it.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's like it's such a big thing and obviously, you know, there's so many things to cover and you're obviously trying to cover, you know, the most frequent, I guess in there and make sure everyone's comfortable, you know, and that can be hard because there's so many things to cover. So many children. Like I'm just thinking, and like this is my personal story, so this is obviously a little bit different, but my daughter's quite a severe epileptic and so we have, you know, anti seizure meds and emergency rescue meds to give her. And that's a lot. She spends, she's at the, she's only six. She's at the studio seven hours a week, eight hours a week by herself. And I don't really want to sit there. So it's a lot like. And I think just obviously you're not training on every single possible thing, but it's nice to kind of see like the framework of how something's, you know, taught to then know when, when a child like my daughter, who has quite a specific illness, you know, it's nice to know that you then kind of know, okay, well, this is what I had to do for, for example, I probably need to do the same things. I don't know. Is that, that's kind of how I would say it as well.

Yeah, absolutely. And every, every child and every situation is different as well. So you know, your, your daughter would have an epi, Sorry, an epilepsy care plan, like action plan. Yes. So that might be, that would differ to, you know, another child that's got epilepsy. So it's about knowing that every kid's got a different thing and there isn't a first aid one fixed. You know, people want like, this is what I do then this is what I do. But unfortunately it's got to be a bit fluid and absolutely knowing what to do and what questions to ask. But I do do sessions just with studio. So I do private studio sessions and in those sessions that's when they can ask their specifics. So I went to a studio, I.

Had this child with this. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I went to a studio recently who has a child who's on oxygen, so she needs to have oxygen. And they have been amazing and welcomed her into their studio. And she's dancing, she's doing two ballet classes and she's even prepping for an exam or she's working towards an exam. But they just had some questions around the oxygen, you know, tubing and the oxygen, like where the oxygen connections are and all those sorts of things. So I was able to I guess alleviate some of their fear behind it. And the parents have obviously educated them too. But the, the parents obviously their first point of contact, but they sort of, for them it's there every day. So they just brush over it and it's like, oh yeah, just hook this up.

That's what I do.

Yeah, yeah. Like if she's a bit short of breath, just crank up the oxygen. But I guess as you know, when you only see it a couple of times a week, you want to make sure that you're all across it. And, and because you don't have to, you know, necessarily have an incident or respond every, every time they're in, you just.

Yeah.

So that's when you can say I've got it. I've got a lot of kids with diabetes, I've got a lot of kids with epilepsy. We're see of injury, we're seeing this. And in those sessions I can break it down and really tailor it to you as a studio.

I love that so much. And, and as you said, like, you know, that's that interesting thing and it's just clicking for me because I'm totally that mom that you just talked about as a mom. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, just give me this emergency med like because it's my reality and it's every day and it's, you know, that's just how it is in my life. But you know, for teachers at a studio who aren't confident, I love that, that you can ask more specific questions but also just, you know, like you were saying, the care plan, because so many kids have care plans for so many different diagnosis. But just even knowing how to read a care plan and how to, you know, how to store them, how to follow them, all of that, I think that's. Yeah. So, so beneficial. Talking of that, like, can we talk about like what are the legal requirements for studios, I guess to start with and then like teachers in a studio and like their first aid requirements.

Yeah, absolutely. So it differs a little bit from state to state and territory, etc. So everyone's got a little bit of different legislation but as we know, our industry isn't regulated as such. So there isn't a regulatory body who is mandating first aid across our studios, which blows my mind a bit. And I'm on the passion wheel for this because you know, in every other education setting across our country, you know, working with children and first aid is a no brainer and it's mandated, you know, so why is it not necessarily for us? There is first aid requirements though, when it comes under the Work Health and Safety acts. So, you know, as a business and as a studio owner, you've got certain requirements to, and a duty of care to provide first aid and first aid kits and be trained. And it depends on, sometimes it depends on the size of the organization as well. So if you have a certain amount of people, you know, you're required to have a certain amount of first aiders within that space. So I'm really trying to change the way we look at that. And it's super important that not just the studio owner has first aid, that everyone in the studio has first aid. So, you know, I'm talking about the assistant and student teachers who are there, the senior students even, who help backstage with the little kiddies, you know, at concert time, the admin staff, the, the parent helpers, you know, all of the teachers we know with first aid, even if it's a minor thing that time and that first response is critical. So we, we don't want to, you know, dilly dally and just because you're the studio owner and you're there all the time, you know, you live there and you're easily accessible. You know, we want to be empowering all of, all of our staff to have that training and knowledge to be able to respond. And also it builds trust and it's, you know, works on that. That's good for business environment, it's good for business. It's trust with the parents. And you know, if you have a new student that comes with epilepsy or diabetes and as the teacher on day one, you're like, where's their plan and what are their symptoms and what should I be looking out for and what do I do? And just, you know, double check with the parent. They're going to feel so much confidence in you as their, as their teacher, their kids teacher to be able to respond and they're going to be so happy to sign up to more classes and leave them there for longer.

Absolutely. It's that funny thing, you know, one of my big passions, I guess, you know, we all have, our thing that we're passionate about is that dance studios are real businesses. They're not a hobby, it's not a club, it's not a, you know, it's a real business. But you can't take the good parts of that and ignore the bits that you don't. You can't pick and choose which bits you using of That I think that's so important. I see that sometimes, like you can't go, oh, I want to be a real business and charge this much, but I'm not going to have a first aid officer on site. Like, you know, we've got to have all of the parts going to be considered a real business and to be seen legitimate through our clients eyes. You know, it's important.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that even though there might not specifically be that legal requirement for every single person, you know, that operator that works at the studio to have the first aid, it's going to help if something were to happen and you know, God forbid someone comes back with legal action. You know, there's the Duty of Care act and Good Samaritan Acts across the country that, that cover you if you've got first aid, you know, if you've got first aid training and you render first aid assistance, you know, no one can come back and say, hey, you actually did harm or you did this or you know, whatever it might be. So it's super important that we've got that to fall back on and we have been trained. I know what to do and I was just doing my best at the time.

Absolutely. I love that you said that as well about, you know, I think so many people go, oh, just the studio owner has it because she's always there. But I just always would have in the back of my head, yeah, she's always there. Except that one night that she was off sick. That was literally the one night of the year that something important and something big happened and you had these staff there, these young teachers or whatever that didn't know the appropriate response. Both first aid but also like in a systems point of view, like, you know, do they know how to contact the parent? Do they know like who the first port of call is and what to do and how to do, you know, an injury report sheet or whatever that is in the business. Like. Yeah, I just. It can't just all be in your head.

No, it absolutely can't. It absolutely can't. And we're setting everyone up for success if we're training them properly. Right. So as a studio owner it should be the first thing you're doing, you know, booking your staff into a group session to upskill and it's, you know, professional development.

Absolutely. How often do people have to renew their first aid? Yeah.

So first full first aid is required every three years. And that's because things change. You know, better evidence comes out that says we need to change the way we do something, so we need to be doing it every three years. And then there's a recommended CPR yearly update. So, you know. Yeah. So we know that obviously we can't practice or rehearse CPR in real life situations. So that's why every year we'd love to get you on the mannequins and, you know, just getting that rhythm and getting back into it and just being confident to be able to do it if you needed to.

Absolutely. That's so, so good. And you know, obviously probably it's. It's a hard thing because it does take time, but it's such as you said, an important part of it. Yeah, I'd love to know some tips. What's like, must have items in like a first aid kit. Sorry to interrupt you there, but what are like your must have that people should be having because obviously they need the training, but they also need a really good first aid kit at their studio. Like, you know, is there recommendations around that? What should be in there? Where would you recommend getting this like perfect first a kit?

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm just currently developing my own for dance aid, so.

Oh, really? I didn't even know that. That's exciting.

I know. Yes, it is. It is. So that's still in the. In the early stages, but it will be out eventually. And Yep. I absolutely recommend. Obviously you have numerous band aids. We go through these, you know, like no tomorrow. But like all the little kids, you know, it fixes everything. Right. You know, have some Elsa ones or some superhero ones of course as well.

Absolutely.

Have a few different size BE bandages. You know, I don't like to teach how to strap specifically because first aid is about that initial response. And I want to make sure that we are sending them off to get proper medical attention. So, you know, we're not professionals in the field of, you know, physios, osteos, kairos, those sorts of things. So we want to make sure they're getting their injury specifically looked at. But having some K tape and some, you know, different size bandages to help us compress and strap for a short interim period of time. Absolutely. Pocket mask. No one really knows what a pocket mask is. A pocket mask is a face mask that helps with the rescue breaths when you're doing cpr. So it's a barrier device that we can use. So we absolutely should be having an adult size of one of those and a kid pediatric size one of those in our first aid kits as well. And then the final thing, there is some evidence coming out that's changing the way we think about our RICER acronym. Rest, ice, compress, elevate and refer. So they're suggesting ICE isn't necessarily the way to go. But at the moment we're still. It's best practice across the first aid world, so we're still educating on that. So the best for ice pack I can recommend is a bag of peas. You know, they, they are cheap in terms of if you were giving them out all the time to your kids and they go home with it, you don't need to get it back. And they also mold to any type shape of the body part. So knees, ankles, they will, you know, have good coverage. So I recommend having a bunch of bags of peas in your freezer.

We'll keep all these in stock.

Yeah, absolutely. And then obviously you can have some of the crack, you know, break ones on that, you know, go cold when you crack them in your ice pack.

Yeah.

First aid kits as well, to travel around if you need to. To.

Absolutely. Hey, I love that you just touched on that. You know, you see first aid as a first responder to then pass it on to someone with more knowledge. And I have a great friend, Will Centurion, who works with mental health in dancers, and I believe you touch on that in your course as well. And he talks about that a lot as well, that, you know, we aren't mental health professionals, for example, and we don't need to be all of those things. What we need to know is the warning signs and be a first responder to move it on to the appropriate people. And he talks about. It's exactly like you wouldn't try and fix a broken knee yourself. You would send them to someone that has more experience and better qualifications than you do. I love that kind of idea because I feel like sometimes we think as a studio owner, I've got to know how to strap it perfectly. I need to know how to deal with this child's, you know, severe depression. I need, you know, whatever that is. But it's just that, you know, knowing how to start the situation, then moving it on. Is that right?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's knowing that first response, what to do in the interim to get you through to be able to get them to the proper help and knowing what resources they might need, you know, so if it's mental health or an injury, physical injury, it's. Yeah, it's. I think, like you say, as a studio owner, as a teacher, we already have so much on our plate. So we just want to know, what do I Need to do? Yeah, what do I need to do in that initial response to me through so that everyone's safe and happy and ultimately everyone's there to dance. So we want them to recover and get better and get back into dancing. So however we can do that safely is super important.

I love that so much. So Dance Aid and Empower Dance are coming to Dance Teacher Expo. You've got some amazing things going on there because obviously it can be expensive hard, you know, to have that in person, first aid. So do you want to talk a bit about what you're doing at Dance Teacher Expo?

Yeah, absolutely. So we're so excited to be coming to Dance Teacher Expo and we've got a special session set up. So we're going to be able to sign you off and get your first aid done there and then on that weekend. So yeah, so the way Dance Aid is set up is that it's mainly online. So it's mainly an online course of pre recorded videos which you'll get to see my lovely self on film and then you answer a bunch of assessment questions, which are multiple choice questions. And then we do a short face to face practical session. So prior to Expo you'll sign off and get your first online stuff done and then you can come along and get your CPR and first aid practical session all signed and done on that weekend.

That is so, so good. Because obviously, you know, having so much of it online is awesome, but everybody has to be signed off practically, is that correct? Like I've got that right. No matter what, you always have to be signed off practically.

Yeah, correct. So there's no getting around that you have to do CPR on a CPR mannequin. That's the standards. So you have to physically have a mannequin to be able to do that. So yes, having it at Expo every year, it might just mean that everyone knows they can come to Expo and get their CPR signed off and get their full first aid and it's just a tick box they're attending anyway, so it's going to be convenient and they can leave feeling, you know, empowered and ready to go for the year.

I love that so much. I think that'll be such a good thing for people, especially like when they're already going just to kind of go into that session, get that all done, not have to worry about it, send their staff, not have to worry about doing it at another time. Finding, because you know what it's like finding times that all your teachers are available to come in and have the practical part, signed off.

Yes.

Which weekend. But this teacher is at this, you know, like it's just a nightmare. So. So having that all happen at Expo will be amazing. I think that'd be really good.

Yeah, absolutely. You're right. Getting everyone together for a PD session is just a nightmare.

Absolutely. So what do people need to do if they're interested and want to find out more about how they could do this at Expo, how are they best to get in touch with you? What do we do?

Yeah, absolutely. So you can shoot us an email which is firstaidpowerdance.com or you can give us a call and it's just we'll send you through some information, our prospectus about it. If you'd like to know a bit more specifically about the course or if you're happy just to sign straight on up, we can send you our link. The link is to the enrollment form. So you fill out the enrollment form and then you immediately get access to the online course so you can start straight away.

Awesome.

I will put all of that in Expo.

Oh, tell me about that.

Yeah, so we're doing 50% off, so.

Oh, incredible.

Yeah, our course is 50 off whilst at Expo, so it brings it down to 94.50 for full first aid and 25 for a CPR update.

Fantastic. So 94.50 per person plus the 24 CPR update.

So that, that includes the CPR. So 9,450 includes is full first aid, including CPR and then incredible. 25 bucks is just for your CPR yearly update. So if you just, you just do one or the other.

Yep. So, so good. I think that is such a great offer that everyone should be taking advantage of. I will drop all the links that Caitlyn's spoken about in the show notes and we'll send you all an email as well with everything you need to know because what a great opportunity it's been. So good chatting to you, Caitlyn. Really interesting finding out a little bit more about it.

Yes, thank you very much for having me, Amanda. It's lovely to chat to you too.

We cannot wait to see you at Expo. Thank you so much, friends, for listening. Make sure you check out Caitlin Dance Aid and you can also find all of their information on the Empower Dance website. So check it out. As we said, it'll be in the show notes. Thanks, friends. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dance Principles United podcast. If you'd love to learn more from us, we have a special offer just for our podcast listeners. Go to the link in the show notes right now to get two weeks free in Dance Principles United Tribe. We would love to see you there.