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High threat Buddying protocol

Draft protocol

This protocol is a draft. It has not yet been accepted as protocol and may be incorrect or poorly cited. Please do not use this in your work until it has been accepted.

In a first aid context such as a protest or other event, buddies work differently to other care situations. Your responsibilities in a buddy pair are broadly the same; keeping each other safe, checking each others work, and complementing each others skills and abilities, but the threats and problems you’re dealing with will fundamentally be different to most other QC settings.

Contents

When to buddy in a high threat environment

This protocol is mostly applicable for high threat environments (such as protests, industrial areas, etc) where you’re worried about unexpected injuries(like physical trauma) happening to a large group of people(like a bloc) rather than lower threat environments (like a hospital waiting room) where you’re looking after one person dealing with a single, predictable problem (like a panic attack).

What to buddy in a high threat environment

You must:

  • Check each other is in an ok mental and physical health position
  • Check you have similar expectations for the event you’re going into
  • Check you have similar expectations for how you’ll respond to incidents (especially how you’re both planning on dealing with risks)
  • Check each others kit, especially PPE.

You should:

  • Familiarise yourself with what equipment the other person has, and where urgent essentials (gloves, water, dressings).
  • Agree who’s taking the lead in what situation (who has what language skills? is one of you better at trauma first aid?).
  • Swap buddies if you have overlapping skills and abilities, or obvious holes (a common one is two short people buddied for an event expected to be crowded, where you will need a tall person to be able to see what is happening).

How to buddy in a high threat environment

  • While moving through the event, you must keep an eye on each other. Always know where each other are. If you lose sight of each other, make it your priority to find each other first.
  • You must watch out for threats to each other, and communicate them to each other.
  • You must watch out for casualties, and communicate if you see one.

  • You should consult each other on where you’re heading next.

  • If you encounter an incident:
    • one buddy deals directly with the casualty by speaking to them or physically intervening
    • while the other prioritises their safety by watching out for threats, managing bystanders, and communicating as needed. This buddy may also be in charge of making the phone call to get help/etc.

What to do after buddying in a high threat environment

You should debrief and quickly cover the work you did with your buddy as you leave the event. This is not a replacement for a full Debreif