We have a magnet on our fridge which contains a list of things to do and check when someone needs to be resuscitated. The checklist is supposed to be easy to remember by use of the acronym "DRS.ABCD". While "Doctors ABCD" sounds like it might be easy to remember in theory, it is my experience that most people have trouble remembering 8 digit telephone numbers; which makes my wonder how well they would remember 7 things on a card.
I have some advantage in that having taken a first aid course, I was forced to remember this in order to pass but even then the core of the things to remember was still only ABC. Besides which, all of this is easy to remember in theory but when the emotional heat of an emergency is turned up to boiling point, even rational people very turn into dribbling pools of liquid upon the floor.
This then is an expanded and exploded list of things to remember; which I can guarantee that practically everyone will not.
Danger - look for danger
Response - look for a response
Send - Send for help
Airway - make sure there is nothing in the patient's airways
Breathing - check to see if they are breathing
CPR - perform CPR if there is no heartbeat
Defibrillation - use a defibrillator if no heartbeat is present
Emergency - telephone the emergency services
Find - find warm blankets to keep the patient from freezing
General - get a good sense of where you are, so that you can inform the emergency services
Hospital - if the emergency services want to send an ambulance or advise that you should take the patient to a hospital, know where the nearest one is
Information - give the emergency services as much information about the situation as possible
Jam - try to have a jar of jam on hand
Kitchen - go to the kitchen and find wet towels if the patient is running a fever
Lemonade - offer lemonade to people who are working hard
Movement - in general do not move the patient in case they have internal injuries which might be aggravated
Neeners - neeners indicate that the ambulance is in a hurry. Transfer responsibility to trained professionals where possible
Oh - Oh! Oh! Oh! The emergency services number is 000, after what people want to run around yelling in an emergency
Podcasts - waiting in the Emergency Department for hours is really boring. Listen to a podcast while you are waiting
Queue - emergency departments are busy places, so do not be resentful if you are not head of the queue
Ready - be ready to render assistance if asked
Tea - literally no problem in the world can not be improved with a cup of tea
Uniform - Uniformed officers, be they the police, fire, or ambulance service are more qualified to deal with emergencies than you. Let the experts be experts and do expert things.
Vaccination - try to find out what vaccines that a person has had and any medication that they might be taking which would interaction with a course of treatment
Whiskey - do not give whiskey to a cold person. Whilst it might make them feel warm, it is merely a vasodilator and makes them lose heat faster. Drink it yourself.
Xero - be calm. Do not lose your head when everyone else is losing theirs.
Yips - the sight of blood and other fluids such as a code brown, is enough to give some people the yips. It is okay to admit that you might also be in distress.
Zzzz - remember to get adequate sleep in the people that you might be in the emergency room
Already it should be pretty obvious that nobody can remember all of these things and to further prove the uselessness of having too many things to remember, I bet that the only things that you can remember on this list are Jam and Lemonade; they're not medical things.
Granted that people have the capability of remembering a tremendous amount of things but when it comes to doing that under pressure, the entire list may as well not exist.
Except...
When it comes to safety items such as things to do in an emergency, or the use of a fire extinguisher, or a fire blanket, or airline safety card, or defibrillator, or chemical clean up kit, you don't actually need to remember everything out the list. You just need to know where the list/safety item is and then follow the instructions.
If it hasn't been demonstrated by extremity, even seemingly simple tasks are made all the more complex by the emotional overlay of emergency. People like the police, fire brigade, ambulance service, military service personnel, pilots, and other people in occupations where the potential for things to go wrong very quickly are usually highly trained. The general public is not.
The existence of a safety card displayed in a prominent position, is consistently proven to be excellent.
Get an emergency safety card and a fire extinguisher. Make sure the instructions are on display.
Also make jam sandwiches and have some lemonade... yes, it's not medical advice but it's still a jolly good idea.
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