Where Should I Place Bleeding Control Kits & Stations in School?
Where Should I Place Bleeding Control Kits & Stations in School?
Strategic Locations to Help You Prepare
If you are responsible for health and safety within a school, it’s critical that you consider where you need to place bleeding control stations. With the number of incidents in schools rising over the past decade, it’s more important than ever for schools to learn about the STOP THE BLEED® campaign. Keep reading as we share the top locations to place bleeding control stations around your school.
While the areas we’ve listed below are great locations for bleeding control stations, a lot of states require your school to have these kits in the school. Make sure you have enough kits in each area for multiple victims, as one is unlikely to be enough in the case of a mass tragedy. Primarily focus on high-traffic areas of your school, but keep stations nearby throughout the school, so one is never too far away.
The Nurse’s Office
While your nurse’s office no doubt has a fair few medical supplies already, make sure it’s also equipped with a bleeding control station. We highly encourage anyone working in this area to be trained by STOP THE BLEED®, which offers short courses for individuals to learn how to deal with bleeding injuries. The difference between a bleeding control station and your typical first aid kit is that the items in this station are designed specifically with this type of injury in mind. The supplies in your regular first aid kit are unlikely to be able to stop heavy bleeding, which is why this is a crucial addition to this area in any school.
Gymnasiums and Athletic Centers
One of the most common places we see injuries take place in schools is within gymnasiums and athletic centers. Any form of sport or physical activity comes with some risk. Of course, some sports are more likely to result in a severe injury than others, which is why health and safety briefings are critical before any training sessions and events. Make sure everyone who trains in these areas regularly knows where the kit is in case of an emergency. The sooner someone can react to an accident, the more likely you’ll be able to stop the bleeding and stop a severe loss of blood.
Auditorium
Many of the tragedies we’ve seen in schools over the past few years have taken place in crowded auditoriums. People know that this is where the majority of large student gatherings take place. The more people you have in one area, the more likely an accident is to occur. Make sure you keep at least one bleeding control station in here and ensure that any teachers working in this hall know how to STOP THE BLEED®. We always encourage you to start any large student gathering with a brief safety announcement, so everyone knows how to react if an emergency was to take place.
The Library
While we like to think of the library as a place of quiet study, you never know what could happen here. This is often a highly-populated area of the school, and it’s somewhere that there are many hidden corners and areas where an incident could take place. For that reason, there have been many reported blood loss events in libraries over the years, so you need to focus on adding a station to your school library. Make sure anyone supervising the library is trained by STOP THE BLEED® and will know how to react and where to find the kit in an emergency.
Main Office
The main entryway to your school is another critical area to add bleeding control stations. This is often the central point of the school, so it’s a logical place to add a kit. If all of the teachers in your school know kits are kept here, they’ll have one place they can run to if an emergency was to occur in their classroom. The added advantage of adding a kit here is there is usually a receptionist or someone on duty. In an emergency, you could call down to the main office and ask them to immediately bring the bleeding control stations to treat the patients.
Buses and Team Vehicles
If you have sports teams who regularly travel in a school bus or team vehicle, this is another sensible place to add a bleeding control station. You never know what you will encounter on your journey or what facilities the other school will have in place when you arrive. While we hope any school you would be playing against during a sports tournament will have a bleeding control station, it’s your responsibility to look after your players while you are traveling. You’ll always be prepared if something was to happen on the journey or if you are staying overnight with your students.
Athletic Equipment Bags
Coaches of your school’s sports teams take on a lot of responsibility by looking after your young athletes. They really need to have bleeding control stations and be confident enough to Stop The Bleed in an emergency. By adding kits to the bags they travel with, you’ll always be prepared for anything to happen. You never know what could happen during an away game, but you’ll be prepared to protect your team and anyone else you meet when you are playing. These bags are usually stored inside the gymnasium or athletic center, so they are a great way to add extra kits to this area too.
As you can see, there are many places to consider adding bleeding control stations around your school. Of course, adding these kits is the first step, but you also need your teachers and older students to be trained to STOP THE BLEED®. More schools are adding this type of training into their curriculum due to the incidents that have taken place over recent years in schools. The more prepared you can be for any eventuality, the more likely you’ll be able to Stop The Bleed and react quickly to avoid losing
