Victoria Occupational First Aid Level 3

As a certified OFA Level 3 First Aid attendant you will be eligible to be a designated first aid attendant for most busy, high risk worksites - even if your worksite is more than 20 minutes travel to a hospital. If your worksite is more than 20 minutes travel to a hospital, then OFA Level 3 is the appropriate certification for these types of worksites. Some people with OFA Level 3 certification get hired specifically to be on-site first aid attendants, especially higher risk worksites where the job may be combined with other safety related tasks as a full time position. OFA Level 3 first aid attendants will sometimes take on this role in addition to regular work duties, often with additional pay or benefits. Being a certified Level 3 first aid attendant can definitely boost your employability! OFA Level 3 First Aid attendants learn and practice assessment, critical interventions, transportation, and secondary assessment and treatment for seriously injured workers. This is a full two-week (80hr) course compared to Level 2 which is only one-week (40hr). OFA 3 is geared toward people who will be the first aid attendant for worksites that are further from a hospital (more than 20 minutes) where they may need to care for seriously injured workers for a longer time. A Level 3 First Aid attendant will learn to move trauma patients, package them for transport, and care for them enroute in an Emergency Transport Vehicle. A Level 3 first aid attendant will also become proficient with a more detailed assessment model and have a greater set of tools for managing patients who are critically injured - including assisted ventilations and other critical interventions.

The vast majority of first aid courses in BC are valid for 3 years after the day of your course. In a few very rare cases an employer may require you to recertify more often than every 3 years even though the certification hasn’t expired yet.

In short, no. While Red Cross Standard First Aid IS recognized by Worksafe BC as equivalent to an OFA 1 certification, it does NOT work the other way around. If a job requires Standard First Aid, an OFA 1 certification would NOT be acceptable. This is because Standard First Aid is a more comprehensive 2 day course where an OFA Level 1 course is only 1 day, and less comprehensive. One other difference is that the OFA 1 course is designed by Worksafe BC and focuses specifically on caring for injured coworkers, while Standard First Aid covers a broad spectrum of contexts such as injuries that happen in the community or in the home.

This is a difficult question to answer precisely as there are different types of first aid courses, and ‘First Aid’ can sometimes overlap into ‘Professional Responder’ training, and still be called ‘First Aid’. In BC, this is clearly defined for Occupational First Aid, where the highest level of first aid is OFA Level 3. For community oriented first Aid, Standard First Aid is the highest level before getting into Professional Responder courses. For Marine First Aid the highest level defined by Transport Canada is Marine Advanced First Aid. For those who need first aid in remote settings, Wilderness First Aid is the highest level. All of that being said, there are Professional Responder courses that go beyond some of these, such as First Responder, Emergency Medical Responder, and Wilderness First Responder courses for those who want to go beyond learning ‘first aid’.

OFA Level 3 First Aid attendants learn and practice a number of skills that OFA Level 2 attendants do not. Level 3 is a full two-week (80hr) course compared to Level 2 which is only one-week (40hr). OFA 3 is geared toward people who will be the first aid attendant for worksites that are further from a hospital (more than 20 minutes) where they may need to care for seriously injured workers for a longer time. First and foremost a Level 3 First Aid attendant will learn to move trauma patients, package them for transport, and care for them enroute in an Emergency Transport Vehicle. A Level 3 first aid attendant will also become proficient with a more detailed assessment model and have a greater set of tools for managing patients who are critically injured - including assisted ventilations and other critical interventions.