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St John First Responder: the free WA first aid app for parents

St John WA's free First Responder app puts first aid guides, a map of nearby defibrillators and urgent care wait times on your phone. Once a first aid course is done, you can also sign up to help neighbours in an emergency within 500 metres.

A father kneels in a park and puts a plaster on his young daughter's grazed knee, his phone on the bench beside them

Your toddler swallows something odd, gets stung, or falls hard off the play gym. A first aid class you did two years ago is somewhere in your head. What you need is the right steps, in plain words, right now.

The St John First Responder app is St John WA's free first aid app. It keeps first aid guides on your phone, shows the nearest defibrillator, and tells you which urgent care clinic or emergency department near you has the shortest wait.

Get the app free

What it is

St John runs the ambulance service in Western Australia. Its app does several jobs, and parents will use these the most:

  1. First aid guides. St John says these are the app's most popular feature: step-by-step guides for a range of emergencies, written by the team who teach its courses across the state. Read them when you need them, or learn ahead.
  2. Defibrillator map. Shows defibs near you from the State Defib Network. You can add one you spot that isn't on the map yet.
  3. Urgent care and hospital wait times. Finds the nearest Urgent Care clinic or hospital, with distance, travel time and wait times, and sends directions to your map app. Handy on a Sunday night when you can't tell if it's an emergency department job.
  4. A 000 button that also finds your location by GPS.
  5. Your training. Your St John course history, and a way to book the next one.

Does it work without signal?

Mostly, yes. The first time you open it you need the internet to download the content. Open the defibrillator map and the urgent care map once each too, so they save to your phone. After that, those work offline. Calling 000 still needs mobile coverage, and the GPS locator and responder alerts need internet.

Helping your neighbours: Community First Responders

This is the part most people haven't heard of. If you have done an accredited first aid course in the last three years, you can register in the app as a Community First Responder. When someone within 500 metres of you has a medical emergency, the app can alert you. You choose to accept or decline. If you accept, you get the details, go and help, and hand over to the paramedics when they arrive.

If you did your course with St John WA, you are approved straight away. Other courses take about two business days to check. Emergency services workers and AHPRA-registered health professionals can register with their ID or registration. You can switch yourself to Inactive any time you don't want alerts.

Worried about getting it wrong? St John's FAQ quotes WA's Civil Liability Act 2002: a good Samaritan who helps at an emergency in good faith, without recklessness, does not incur personal civil liability.

Who it's for

What it costs

Nothing. It's free on the App Store and Google Play, for iPhone, iPad and Android.

Set it up in five minutes

  1. Open the App Store or Google Play and search St John First Responder.
  2. Install it and open it once on wifi so the guides download.
  3. Open the defibrillator map and the urgent care map once each, so they save for offline use.
  4. Look up the guide for choking, and the one for burns, while nothing is wrong, so you know where they are.
  5. Find the defib nearest your home, your childcare and your local park.
  6. If you hold a current first aid certificate and want to help others nearby, register as a Community First Responder in the app.

Need a hand? St John's Community First Responder team is on (08) 9334 1418 or first.responder@stjohnwa.com.au.

Pair it with a course

An app is a reminder. Hands-on practice is what your body remembers under stress. Royal Life Saving WA's free one-hour online course covers CPR for babies and children: our write-up is Free online first aid learning. For finding your exact location on a 000 call, add Emergency+ too.

Get the app free

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