Toitū te Waiora has completed its initial public consultation for four First Aid unit standards. We welcome all feedback on the reviewed standards. Please email us at [email protected] by close of business on Friday the 29th July 2022.

Consultation was undertaken with a range of interested parties between February and May 2022.

On the 28th of March 2022, Toitū te Waiora published its intention to review the four standards. All providers with consent to assess against the standards, and a range of other interested parties, were invited to complete a survey. TTW received 57 responses, and respondents were given the opportunity to attend face-to-face meetings with us via Microsoft Teams.

Face-to-face hui were undertaken with 50 interested parties, including the Association of Emergency Care Training Providers (‘AECTP’), the New Zealand Resuscitation Council, iwi, whanau, first aid training providers, other Ohu Mahi Workforce Development Councils, and learners who had completed first aid training.

In May 2022 the AECTP collectively updated the First Aid as a Life Skill document. This is a living document that will be updated and edited as appropriate by the sector, and will be published on the Toitū te Waiora website. A working draft is included in the table, below.

This review of unit standards has led to a number of areas of interest for future development. These include:

• Toitū te Waiora intends to develop a micro-credential that can be awarded to learners who complete the revised versions of 6400, 6401 and 6402. This is likely to be available to first aid educators registered with NZQA later in 2022.
• Toitū te Waiora will consider the development of skill standards and a national curriculum if there is sector interest.
• It was noted that there appear to be no Kaupapa Māori or Pacific peoples training providers currently delivering these first aid unit standards. This is a large gap, and an opportunity for future development.
• Feedback from the disabled community was that they would like to able to achieve a first aid qualification based on their ability to instruct someone else how to provide emergency medical care in the event of an emergency. While this lies outside the scope of this review, we will consider the possibility of developing a unit standard in first aid which is achievable by disabled people.

Proposed changes to unit standards

Edits were made to Guidance Information in standards 6400, 6401, and 6402 to align with NZQA formatting requirements.

6400 (‘Manage first aid in an emergency situation’)

• Reference added to First Aid as a Life Skill document.
• Outcome 1 – various changes:
• major wounds expanded to include ‘gunshot, stabbing, and crush injuries.’
• addition of ‘internal injuries’.
• reference to ‘internal bleeding’ moved to unit standard 6402.
• addition of ‘wet and windy’ to ‘cold emergency’.

6401 (‘Provide First Aid’)

• Reference added to First Aid as a Life Skill document.

6402 (‘Provide basic life support’)

• Moves from level 1 to level 2 on the NZQF to better align with the complexity of the revised standard.
• Moves from 1 credit to 2 credits to reflect inclusion of a new Outcome relating to treating severe bleeding and shock.
• Various edits made to wording in Performance Criteria.
• Inclusion of a new Outcome 2 (‘Describe first aid treatment for severe bleeding and shock’), based on bleeding and shock content removed from unit standard 6400.

25459 (‘Provide First Aid for Young Children’)

• Following consultation, we are proposing that this standard is set to expire without replacement on 31 December 2024. The narrow focus of this standard was noted during consultation, and it was considered that Outcomes in standards 6400, 6401, and 6402 were preferable for training people to deal with first aid emergencies and saving lives across the whole of Aotearoa.

Please read the US documents below. You also have an option to read them with tracked changes.