First aid may be defined as the provision of initial, emergency care for an illness or an injury. It is usually performed by a non-expert individual as a holding measure until definitive medical treatment can be applied. However, certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not even require further medical care past the first-aid intervention stage, such as the cooling of mild burns or laying the patient down and raising the legs to restore blood pressure in the setting of a simple faint. Those examples show that first aid consists of a series of simple and potentially life-saving techniques an individual can be trained to perform with minimal or no equipment in the emergency situation.

First aid has a long and distinguished history, with the first recorded instances having been provided by religious knights who were trained to train other knights in how to treat common battlefield injuries.

The key aims of first aid are to preserve life, to prevent further harm (such as moving a burns victim away from the source of the burn, say, a fire, or to apply pressure over a wound in order to reduce bleeding) and to promote recovery, possibly even completing treatment, such as applying a plaster to a small wound.

The government has announced that over a third of seven- and eight-year-olds attending state schools will be offered lessons in basic first aid as of the next scholastic year. It is a pity that this programme seems to have been prompted by the recent death from choking on food by a young lawyer during a barbecue. Why wait for a tragedy to happen before taking effective action?

A doctor at Mater Dei Hospital's Emergency Department recently called on the authorities to teach basic first aid to children, as this would be more effective than teaching first aid to adults, a valid point that seems to have been taken up by the government after this recent, publicised and tragic death. Now, a petition is being raised requesting that basic first aid should be a compulsory subject in the national curriculum, an even better step as individuals are often clueless as to what to do in common emergencies. Panic, screaming and other histrionic manifestations do not reduce injuries or save lives, but first aid does. The government has commenced by training 10 peripatetic teachers to the level of qualified instructors but students who take up first aid lessons do so on a voluntary basis.

External defibrillators for victims of acute heart attacks are also (albeit slowly) making their way into the islands, with the full backing of the Malta Resuscitation Council. Ideally, these devices should be available at all large public concourses. Defibrillators are nowadays considered as medical equipment the lay public should have access to in emergencies so that lay persons and trained individuals can use this type of equipment to deliver shocks to the chest in order to reset and restart the heart in the event of an acute myocardial infarction. Training in first aid should naturally also encompass the efficient and accurate use of such equipment.

So, first aid courses are useful because it has been shown that through such instruction, citizens are not only trained in saving lives and minimising injuries but, through their knowledge of the potential for injury and death, are more cautious and more adept at avoiding risk such as in the case of traffic accidents.