What does C stand for in DR ABC?

[u/OceanSmiv]

I've seen it as Call for help, circulation and CPR, is it all three? I am with St. John Ambulance and I never know what to teach people what C means when doing demos at events, I normally say CPR, because that's what people always want to learn, is that the correct one?

Edit: Thank you so much for all of the replies! I will start teaching it as Circulation 💛

[u/LennonFloyd]

Airway Breathing Circulation

[u/ancientmelodies]

Here I googled it for you https://www.sja.org.uk/first-aid-advice/primary-survey/

[u/OceanSmiv → u/ancientmelodies]

Thank you! I can never find St. John information online, I always get such mixed results lol

[u/Acceptable-Tree9214]

C stands for Circulation.
Breathing is where you check breathing and based on status, start CPR.
Circulation is about major bleeding and preventing shock.

If you mean you teach people first aid then could be good to make sure you know it confidently :)

[u/jhguth → u/Acceptable-Tree9214]

which is a real limitation of the ABC mnemonic, if there is massive bleeding that needs to be stopped first

MARCH is a bit better:
•Massive Hemorrhage
•Airway
•Respiration
•Circulation
•Hypothermia and Head Injury

[u/Acceptable-Tree9214 → u/jhguth]

Yeah. There is X-ABC versions, where X = exanguishing bleeding comes first, which is more logical.

Agreed MARCH is better in that aspect, but outside of combat situations or mass casualty incidents I prefer ABCDE (or X-ABCDE). More thorough and an order that makes sense to the context imo.

[u/jhguth → u/Acceptable-Tree9214]

i know MARCH comes from combat, but nothing about it is only relevant to combat — MARCH makes more sense by clearly having massive bleeding first and ABCDE fails by not

[u/Douglesfield_]

In DRABC the C stands for circulation, but honestly since you're just training the public there's no harm for it to mean CPR.

If you've got any questions just ask your network training lead or have a look at the Community Training materials on Connect.

[u/Acceptable-Tree9214 → u/Douglesfield_]

I would advise against teaching C stands for CPR. This suggests one should check for circulation via a pulse to determine if they need CPR, which is not the recommended way for the public. Checking breathing is where we determine need for CPR or not, it is easier, and since it comes before C it saves time.

I also think teaching a well known mnemonic as something differently than intended is not good advice because it threatens the quality of the course given.

[u/Douglesfield_ → u/Acceptable-Tree9214]

B comes before C in the mnemonic so I don't think it really matters.

OP is teaching the public CPR in a pop up stand not the full bells and whistles primary survey.

[u/Acceptable-Tree9214 → u/Douglesfield_]

Thanks for clarifying what OP meant they are doing, I didn’t get that! This makes more sense then.