First aid in the workplace: The most important things happen before help arrives

Written by Anders Schultz-Møller

Denmark in numbers: the minutes are your opponent

In Denmark, around 5,000 people a year suffer cardiac arrest outside of hospital. The Danish Health Authority points to three facts that make “the first minutes” a workplace issue:

• After about 6 minutes without help, the brain can start to suffer damage
• Most people suffer permanent injuries or die if they don’t get help within about 10 minutes
• The chance of survival decreases by approximately 10% per minute without resuscitation

That’s why HR and L&D can’t just ‘have something on the wall’. Preparedness is a shared reflex or nothing.

Why people “freeze” (and why it’s perfectly normal)

When something becomes urgent, many people freeze. Not because they don’t care, but because the brain is looking for a next step and can’t find it fast enough.

This is where training makes all the difference: it changes “What if I do something wrong?” with a simple script for your body to follow when your heart rate increases:

Call 1-1-2 → start CPR → use AED/defibrillator → stop life-threatening bleeding → continue until help takes over.

The first 60 seconds: a script everyone can use

When the going gets tough, it’s not “more knowledge” you need. You need a consistent process. Here’s a practical script that works in a workplace context:

1) Take control right away

Say out loud:
“You call 1-1-2. You get the defibrillator. You make room.”
It reduces chaos, clarifies roles and gets more people moving.

2) Check briefly: is the person responding? Is the person breathing normally?

If the person is unconscious and not breathing normally, you need to act as in cardiac arrest.

3) Call 1-1-2 (or confirm that it is done)

An important reassurance: The on-call center can guide you in resuscitation over the phone.

4) Start CPR and stay focused

The most important thing is to get started and keep going until help takes over.

5) Use the defibrillator/AED as soon as it is available

If you want to do one thing today, it’s this: make sure everyone knows where it hangs and that more people dare to use it.
You can check the nearest location via hjertestarter.dk.

Witnesses make a huge difference even when response time isn’t perfect

A large, nationwide survey based on the
Danish Cardiac Arrest Registry (Danish Cardiac Arrest Registry)
shows that witnessed CPR is associated with significantly higher 30-day survival and that the difference actually increases the longer the response time:

• For response time within 5 minutes, survival was 14.5% vs. 6.3% (≈ 2.3× higher)
• For response time within 10 minutes, survival was 6.7% vs. 2.2% (≈ 3.0× higher)

Translated into workplace language: When someone dares to take action, it can move the outcome even when the ambulance is not there “fast enough”.

Early defibrillators can go even further

When cardiac arrest is caused by a shockable rhythm, early defibrillation is crucial.
The European Resuscitation Council (ERC) suggests that defibrillation within 3-5 minutes can provide survival rates as high as 50-70%.

That’s why “defibrillator on the wall” is only half of it. The other half is:
Does everyone know where it is and dare they use it?

The workplace must plan first aid

First aid is not just “nice to have”. Danish Working Environment Authority regulations emphasize that the workplace must be equipped with
necessary first aid equipment
when the nature of the work and conditions make it necessary and that equipment must be placed in appropriate locations.

And workplace accidents are not hypothetical: NFA refers to figures from the Danish Working Environment Authority that in 2023 there were
49,049 work accidents.

This makes first aid part of your operational resilience: Equipment + training + repetition.

Why e-learning is the easiest way to build a common reflex

Physical first aid training is powerful, but for many organizations the challenge is scale:

• More locations
• Shift shifts
• Onboarding new employees
• Need for repetition (because knowledge rusts)

This is where a short, scenario-based online training can make a real difference:

• Same foundation for everyone (common language and common script)
• Easy to repeat (repetition = reflex)
• Easy to operate (reminders, measurement, refresh)
• Easy to fit into a busy schedule (short modules)

Grape + Falck: Online course in First Aid

If the goal is “everyone should know the basics and dare to act”, then
Grape’s online First Aid course
designed to do just that:

• Developed in collaboration with Falck
• Duration: 90 minutes
• Language: English and Danish
• Built as e-learning with short videos, interactive exercises and realistic scenarios