Reference and measurement
The charts and the technique. Printable, and worth reading before you need them.
| Chapter | What it covers | Read |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Vital signs — all ages | Ranges from birth to adult, the three-band assessment for an unwell child under 5, and why an adult chart cannot work the way a paediatric one does. Printable. | 9 min |
| 02 Blood pressure, measured properly | Technique for adults and children, cuff sizing, what a difference between arms can mean, and the two observations no device does for you. | 4 min |
| 03 Single-lead ECG and low-cost monitors | What a consumer ECG device is genuinely good at, the inconclusive rate nobody quotes, how to get a trace worth reading — and why a reassuring trace during chest pain is dangerous. | 7 min |
| 04 School medical room | Situation-to-equipment tables for a school setting, and a single-lead ECG primer. Written to be printed and pinned up. | 4 min |
| 06 Pulse oximetry | Why 94% and 90% are not four points apart, the two conditions where a perfect reading accompanies someone in serious trouble, and the four ways the device lies to you. | 8 min |
When something is happening
One chapter per emergency, each covering adults and children together.
| Chapter | What it covers | Read |
|---|---|---|
| 05 Cardiac arrest and resuscitation | Why CPR and a shock do different jobs, why "the AED did not shock" is not reassurance, and the four ways a pulse oximeter lies to you. | 13 min |
| 07 Choking | Why the sequence differs between infant, child and adult, why thrusts need follow-up even when they work, and where the shop-bought suction devices actually belong. | 7 min |
| 08 Drowning | A hypoxic arrest, so the priority inverts: five rescue breaths before compressions, and no attempt to drain water. | 2 min |
| 09 Catastrophic bleeding | Direct pressure, wound packing, and why a tourniquet is an escalation rather than a last resort. | 3 min |
| 10 The collapsed or altered person | Seizures, stroke, diabetic emergencies and opioid overdose — organised by what you see rather than by what it turns out to be. | 5 min |
| 11 Fainting | Three questions separate the harmless from the dangerous. What to check, how long to keep someone lying down, faint against seizure, and what to do about the head they banged. | 15 min |
| 12 Stroke | The treatments and the clock, why the late window is unsettled, what to ask when you are asked to decide, finding the cause, and preventing the next one. | 13 min |
| 13 Urinary tract infection (UTI) | Recognition by group, first-choice antibiotics and their exclusions, what survives a penicillin allergy, and why a dipstick should not diagnose it in over-65s. | 8 min |
| 14 Sepsis and meningitis | Both are taught around a rash, and the rash is the least reliable part of either. | 9 min |
| 15 Poisoning and ingestion | Why paracetamol is silent early, why a swallowed button battery is a two-hour emergency, and the four rules that cover most of the rest. | 8 min |
| 16 Heat illness | Hot and lucid is exhaustion; hot and confused is heat stroke. Cool first and transport second — and why an ear thermometer can read normal at 41 °C. | 7 min |
| 17 Cold, hypothermia and frostbite | Handle gently because a cold heart is unstable, warm the trunk and not the limbs, and why someone can deteriorate after rescue rather than before it. | 6 min |
| 18 Electrical injury and lightning | Nothing happens until the power is off, the visible burn is never the injury, and why lightning reverses the usual triage order. | 5 min |
| 19 Crush injury | The danger is the release rather than the crushing. The fifteen-minute rule, what you can always do, and why the team appears not to be rushing. | 5 min |
| 20 Cuts, grazes and cleaning them | Why tap water is a sound irrigant, why air drying beats a used tissue, and the improvised choices that matter when you have nothing. | 6 min |
| 21 Bites and stings | Tick removal and what erythema migrans actually looks like, why the UK does not give antibiotics after a tick bite, human bites and knuckle wounds, and the four things not to do for an adder bite. | 6 min |
| 22 Head injury | Which knocks need hospital, the anticoagulant exception, how long to watch, the subtle signs of a slow bleed weeks later, and what pupils can and cannot tell you. | 8 min |
| 23 Burns and scalds | Twenty minutes of cool running water matters more than anything done later — and the persistent myths about what to put on it. | 2 min |
| 24 Eye and dental injuries | Irrigate a chemical splash before finding sterile fluid, never reimplant a baby tooth, and why a knocked-out adult tooth goes in milk. | 4 min |
| 25 Obstetric emergencies | Bleeding, pre-eclampsia, cord prolapse, birth before arrival, CPR in pregnancy — and preterm labour, where a delay of 24 to 48 hours changes the outcome. | 9 min |
| 26 Anaphylaxis | Adrenaline doses by age and weight, why antihistamines are not treatment, why an airway tube will not help, and the positioning error that kills people. | 7 min |
Nothing here is training. Reading about compressions does not make anyone able to do them under pressure; a half-day course does, and the difference between the two is most of the outcome. And none of it replaces calling 999.