If you are involved in rugby – or even just enjoy attending matches – then you could benefit from the SAFE Rugby course this Saturday in St. Michael’s College on Ailesbury Road.
SAFE Rugby stands for Standard Approach to Field Emergencies in Rugby, and is an initiative of the Irish Rugby Football Union. The idea behind it is to train people who are involved in rugby and other contact sports, so that there will always be someone on-hand when injury occurs with the correct knowledge of how to assess and manage the situation.
Saturday’s course will be level one, which is a one-day practical injury management course aimed at those who have not had prior training in injury management. As the IRFU’s First Aid and Injury Prevention Coordinator, Shane Mooney told NewsFour, it is “designed for people with no formal medical background: coaches, club officials, players, parents, referees – all those people who are involved in rugby and will more than likely be at the scene of an incident or an injury. There’s no heavy medical terminology and everything is very practical.”
“They are primarily designed to teach people how to assess and manage rugby-type injuries and to be able to look after the injured player and in effect figure out if they are seriously injured or not. We also cover topics like concussion, dealing with head and spinal injuries and we also include Irish Heart Foundation Basic Life Support and AED training as an integral part of the training, so you learn how to do use a defibrillator and how to do CPR as well.”
The course costs €40 and will run from 9am until 4pm. Tickets can be purchased from this link: http://bookings.irishrugby.ie/product.php?productid=83&cat=1&page=1
By Aimée Mac Leod
