St John Ambulance (SJA) Preston

St John Ambulance has a long and detailed history - dating back over 900 years to Jerusalem. Now, St John currently dedicate more than 5 million hours of service to the community each year, trains over 500,000 people in first aid each year, and boasts the country’s largest fleet of ambulances.

The brand new medical student unit based in Preston entitled the “Moor Park Unit” has now been running successfully for one year. There had been a great deal of interest from previous students and as such we were able to cover a vast amount of events and we hope to continue this in the coming session.

Currently we run fortnightly evening sessions, in which you will be updated with current events and also training to further your first aid skills.

There are a variety of events which St  John cover within the local vicinity including concerts, theatre and football games to name a few, all of which notably is free to attend through your volunteering, and you can choose which events you wish to do.

By being part of St John, you will learn the basic skills often missed in your medical training such as bandaging, wounds, and dealing with broken bones. It enables an early hands-on experience of thinking independently, and relays the importance of prioritisation of which casualties to treat first, for example when faced with an epileptic casualty.

Furthermore, St John is a great way to socialise, meet new people, share experiences between different generations of St John members and build on your team working skills.

In future Foundation year applications, St John is highly favoured upon and the training provided such as medical gases training and defibrillation are essential skills can only be seen as an advantage over other peers. It’s a worthwhile experience, gets you thinking like a doctor, and very beneficial to join!