Learn to stop serious bleeding and save a life, whether you’re in a hospital or first on the scene.

This course teaches the basic principles of bleeding, hemostasis, and shock, and how to control or stop bleeding in both an emergency and a medical setting. It’s built for two kinds of people: medical and healthcare students who need the full theory and technique, and members of the public who want the practical skills to save a life when an emergency or mass-casualty event happens.

Step-by-step instructional videos walk you through the theory and every method, and the practical projects let you do it with your own hands on a simulation arm.

This hands-on, self-paced online course is paired with The Apprentice Doctor® Stop the Bleed Simulation Kit, which includes the instruments and items you need.

What’s inside the course

1. The science behind bleeding

The groundwork: the circulatory system, the relevant pharmacology, vital signs, and the safety aspects that run through everything that follows.

2. Types of bleeding

How to recognize what you’re dealing with: bleeding in general, the different types, external bleeds and the common ones you’ll see, and internal bleeds.

3. Stopping bleeding in an uncontrolled environment

What to do at the roadside or scene of an emergency, without a hospital’s resources: direct pressure, packing and bandaging, and tourniquets.

4. Stopping bleeding in a controlled environment

The hospital, field hospital, clinic, ER, and OR setting, including controlling bleeding during surgery (clamping and tying off vessels) and restoring lost blood volume.

5. Practical projects

The hands-on work on the simulation arm:

• Knot tying techniques
• Setting up an emergency or disaster scenario
• Stopping venous, arterial, and amputation bleeds
• Stopping arteriolar, venular, and capillary bleeds
• Cleaning and storing the simulation arm for re-use

6. Putting it together

When to use which bleeding-control method, the legalities of helping someone in an emergency, and a final assessment.

Who should enroll

Medical and premedical students, paramedics, military medics, qualified professionals wanting a refresher, and any member of the public who wants the skills to save a life in an emergency or mass-casualty event.

Setting

Online and self-paced.

Duration

About 25 hours, including the practical projects.

We recommend you don’t rush it. Keep to about three hours a day so each topic has time to settle. With full-time study you could finish in under a week, but spacing it out works better for what you actually remember. Before each session, take a few minutes to review the previous day’s work.

Requirements and instructions

– Register with Apprentice Doctor Academy

– Enroll in the course

– Get the Simulation Kit (optional, but you’ll need it to complete the practical projects and practice the techniques you learn)

Certified credits

Counts as the equivalent of twenty-five shadowing hours.

One half academic credit per 80 hours of courses taken. Transcript available upon request.

Warnings

– The Apprentice Doctor® Control Bleeding Course and accompanying Control Bleeding Simulation Kit (including all items and instruments in the kit) are for education and training only. No instrument or item may be used in a real clinical setting, emergency or otherwise.

– Some techniques in this course are appropriate for the general public (proof of training within the past two years required), and some should only be applied by suitably qualified medical professionals. The practical projects are clearly marked accordingly.

– Members of the public, and anyone without a formal medical qualification, may expose themselves to medico-legal action by applying techniques meant only for qualified medical professionals.

– The simulator arm and leg vein and artery tubes contain latex. Latex-free simulator arms and legs are available on request.

– If you use colored saline or fake blood, it can stain surfaces and clothing unless they’re properly protected.

– The kit suits students aged 15 and older. Adult supervision is required for students under 18.

– Some of the photos and videos in this course are not suitable for sensitive viewers. Parental guidance is recommended for students under 18, and it is not suitable for students aged 15 and younger.

– The kit contains items that can be a choking hazard. Keep it out of reach of toddlers and babies.

Click here to order your Apprentice Doctor® Stop the Bleed Simulation Kit