Sprained Ankle

How long it’ll take:

75 minutes

Age:

2nd-4th Grade

What the goal is:

The campers should develop basic first aid skills.

What the objectives are:

In a given first aid scenario, they should be able to identify “stop” and “go” aspects to the Scene Size Up. They should also be able to identify things that are included as a “stop and deal” item during the ABC’s. Campers should have experience assessing usability of and wrapping a sprained ankle.

What you’ll need:

Moulage kit

7 Ace wraps

Musculoskeletal injury information cards

How-to-wrap-an-ankle information card

What you’ll do:

Introduction (10 min)

1. Come up with a story for your group to set the stage for the injury.

• Ex: Your group is part of a Search and Rescue team. When people are in distress in the wilderness, they call you. You fly into action and do you best to help in any emergency. Your group has been called to the scene to help someone who believes they injured their ankle. They were hopping from boulder to boulder (pretending to avoid hot lava, of course), wearing a heavy backpack and on the last hop, they rolled their ankle. They are going to need your help to get back to their car.

Begin with one instructor demonstrating signs and symptoms of a badly sprain ankle. You can play this out however you want (ex. They stumble in to the group, you hand them some supplies and “notice” their signs and symptoms, etc.)

2. The other instructor should go through a complete patient assessment system (get various campers to help you with aspects where you need multiple sets of hands)

   1. Scene Size Up

   2. ABC’s

   3. Head to Toe

   4. Vital Signs

   5. SAMPLE history

   6. Planning

   7. Treatment

3. Explain that what you just did was advanced first aid and response. What you’ll be teaching them today is just a piece of the entire process. After the day is over, they should have a bit of experience with broken arms and legs. Emphasize that this is NOT formal first aid training, and calling an adult or a trained emergency responder should always be their first go-to in any first aid situation. If they get really excited and interested by the day’s mini-training, provide them with information on local Community First Aid and WFA courses.

Scene Size Up and ABC’s (5 minutes)

4. Ask the campers, “Why is it important to make sure the scene is safe before trying to help someone who’s hurt?” Give several examples of scenes and have the campers yell “safe” or “not safe” after you’re done explaining. Make them as ridiculous as you see fit.

5. Ask the campers, “Why is it important to make sure someone can breathe and that they’re not bleeding profusely before you help fix their sprained ankle?”

Sprained Ankle (20 minutes)

6. Divide the group into three sub-groups. Each of the sub-groups will be presenting information on aspects of treating sprained ankle. Give the sub-groups the information cards: signs and symptoms, assessing the injury (is it usable?), and checking CSM’s. Remember from your WFA course that CSMs = Circulation, Sensation, and Motor Function. Give each sub group time to come up with a skit to convey the information on their cards to the rest of the group. Each sub-group will present their skit to the overall group.

7. The instructors will then demonstrate how to wrap an ankle on one of the campers using an ACE wrap. Go slow and show the campers every step along the way. Re-check CSM’s after wrapping ankle.

8. Talk about RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate) therapy and how this is the long-term treatment plan for someone with a sprained ankle.

Entire scenario (15 minutes)

9. Take half of the campers away with you. Give them a story and create bruising resembling a sprained ankle on them using the moulage kit.

10. The rest of the group members are “responders”. Play a short game if you have time.

11. Make sure everyone checks to see if the scene is safe before treating their patient. Also make sure everyone sees that their patient can breathe and is not bleeding profusely before treating their patient.

12. Encourage them to “treat” their patients by assessing the injury, checking signs and symptoms, assessing usability, checking CSM’s, wrapping the sprained ankle and re-checking CSM’s. You might need to walk through each step as a group.*

*Kids will likely have lots of fun wrapping ankles. You make need to switch partners so the previously injured camper can practice an ankle wrap too.