Dubai: A fall, a choking incident or a severe burn – have you ever been in a medical emergency involving your child and found yourself failing to stay calm and respond effectively? When every second counts, it is extremely important to know exactly how to respond to ensure that help arrives as quickly as possible. Thankfully, Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services (DCAS) offers a free course in the UAE, in collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU), which can help equip you with the right information.
The ‘C-LINE to Save Lives’ course, which is offered online, can be an excellent starting point towards developing a culture of safety at home for families, as it is suitable for adults as well as children as young as seven years old.
So, if you want to educate yourself to respond more effectively to medical emergencies and accidents – whether at home or outdoors – here is how you can enroll for the course.
What is ‘C-LINE’?
C-LINE is an acronym, which refers to the details that you need to communicate to an emergency response team, like Dubai Police or Dubai Ambulance, to help them reach you as quickly as possible.
C-LINE refers to:
1. Chief complaint – what is the primary reason for which you are calling the ambulance?
2. Location – Giving detailed instructions about your location is very important.
3. Incident – Describe the details of the incident.
4. Number of casualties – are there multiple injured people?
5. Extent of injury – Describe how badly the person is injured, and inform about any pre-existing conditions and details about the injured person.
Why is it helpful for parents, children?
Accidents at home are one of the most common causes of child injury, according to the Dubai Health Authority (DHA). In a statement in 2018, DHA also said that internationally, more than two million children under the age of 15 experience accidents in and around the house every year, for which they are taken to accident and emergency units.
The C-LINE course teaches people how to assess an accident scene and not instinctively rush to help, which might put them and others in more danger. The course also provides detailed training on how to assess emergency situations and reach out to the ambulance services for help.
• How to assess the severity of an injured person.
• How to gather vital information to ensure the right ambulance and care arrives, quickly.
• How to call for emergency assistance.
• Accidental poisoning from household chemicals and medicines.
• Fires caused by smoking cigarettes near flammable surfaces or matches within reach of children.
• Choking
• Cooking stoves
• Sharp objects: We all have plenty of sharp objects around the home that are necessary but in the hands of small children, they can be lethal.
• Electrical injuries: electrocution, electrical burns.
Source: Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services
How to enrol for the course
1. Visit https://learn.mbru.ac.ae/courses/CLINE and click on ‘Enrol Now’.
2. You will then be asked to create a new account by providing your full name and email address and setting a password for your account.
3. Once you have registered, the website will take you to your personal dashboard where you will be able to see the course ‘C-LINE to Save Lives: Communicating your Emergency’.
4. Click on the course to begin.
5. The course will provide introductory videos, interactive guides and illustrative videos of various emergency situations like a fire at home, a fall or an injury caused by heavy objects falling. There is a quiz at the end of each module, which will test your understanding of how to respond to a medical emergency.
6. The course has five modules and takes around 30 minutes to complete. Once you have completed the course, you will also receive a certificate, which can be downloaded as a pdf.
