Top 7 Free Online First Aid Courses With Certificate

In this article, you will find free online first aid courses with certificates to get you started with basic first aid and healthcare. You do not need to be in a health-related field to take any of these courses, they have been developed and designed for everyone to understand and apply in real-life situations.

The first time I had closely seen a first aid box and watched someone administer it to an injured person was in my junior secondary school years. I’d been learning and reading about first aid but never got the chance to see and experience it in real life.

On the day I saw someone giving first aid to an injured person, it was my classmate. I marveled and wondered how a girl as little as I was would be able to give first aid. I later learned that she was a member of the Red Cross Society and giving first aid was the major thing they do.

At that moment I had wanted to join the Red Cross so I could give first aid too, but my school allowed us to join a limited number of school clubs at a time, and then, not only did I not want to disturb anyone for registration fees and uniforms, I also wasn’t ready to show up for the series of training and outings that came with it. I can only imagine what golden opportunity I had missed.

But now, the good news is that I can take first aid courses online for free and be right on my way to saving lives without having to commit to or meet the outrageous requirements that had scared me away years ago.

With free online first aid courses, I can learn first aid from the comfort of my home and at my own pace. Another exciting thing is that I get to learn from instructors across the world with different levels of experience and knowledge.

What is First Aid?

When you provide basic medical care to someone who has been injured, it is known as first aid. It is the first response or treatment given to someone before they are transferred to proper medical care.

First aid is administered to a person with a minor injury and in severe cases, it can be given to stabilize an injury before they can be moved to a hospital or other medical facility for adequate treatment.

Benefits of Online First Aid Courses

There are so many benefits of taking online first aid courses. I will explain a few of them below.

1. It Saves Time

Online first aid courses give you complete control over your time. It doesn’t matter whether you have a full-time job or are bombarded with school work, a good 10 minutes of daily commitment at your own convenient time is a privilege you don’t get to enjoy elsewhere.

2. It Saves Money

When it comes to free online first aid courses, you won’t have to pay a dime to enroll and complete a course. Among other things, the fact that you get to save quite a lot of money and still learn so much is a huge advantage.

3. Learn On The Go

It doesn’t matter where you are at any given time, with these courses that have been designed to be compatible with any device, you can learn pretty much anywhere: On the commute, in the toilet, at work, in school, etc.

4. Lifetime Access

Most of these courses will let you have access to them forever. Do you know what that means? Every day of your life, you can revisit these courses and refresh your memory in case you start to forget anything. Courses that offer lifetime access to course materials are my absolute favorites.

5. Easy To Follow

These courses have been structured in such a way that learners won’t have to struggle to follow through. With videos, written articles, real-time simulations, and course assessments, you can rest assured your study journey is going to be a smooth one, in theory, and practice.

6. Certification

You have experience and you have something to show for it. By the end of your online first aid courses, you will earn a certificate of completion which will be proof that you have been trained to provide medical care to people in emergencies.

Requirements for Free Online First Aid Courses

Not many requirements are needed to take free online first aid courses. Once you have found the course you want to take, you can go ahead and enroll in it and unlock either a lifetime or long-term access to it.

You need a learning device and a network connection to be able to take these courses online. Some educational websites will require you to create a free account with them and sign in before you can view the complete course curriculum and enroll.

Free Online First Aid Courses With Certificates

This section offers a curated list of free online first aid courses with certificates to get you started with or without experience.

  • Basic Online First Aid Course
  • CPR, AED, and First Aid
  • Basic First Aid: How to Be an Everyday Hero
  • First Aid Online Classes by American Red Cross
  • Free Online First Aid Course by American BLS
  • Become an EMT Specialization
  • Online CPR Course

1. Basic Online First Aid Course

The first course on free online first aid courses with certificates is Basic Online First Aid Course, a beginner-friendly course by First Aid for Free.

This course provides an introduction to basic first-aid skills and covers key lifesaving techniques. Topics covered include Incident Management, Infection Control Procedures, The Recovery Position, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), and Major Bleeding and shock.

It is open to anyone who wants to learn more about lifesaving for no charge. To join or view the topics in full, you will be required to create a free account with them. At the end of each module, there is a first aid quiz where you can test your knowledge. Once you’ve completed all the modules you can download a free first aid certificate.

Enroll in this course

2. CPR, AED, and First Aid

The next course on free online first aid courses with certificates is CPR, AED, and First Aid, a course on Alison. This one is for the absolute beginner who doesn’t know a thing about first aid. This course will start with teaching simple definitions of first aid, the basic steps involved in it, and the content of a standard first aid kit.

You will learn how to provide medical care to people in emergencies, including medical problems, traumatic and environmental injuries. You will watch the instructors demonstrate how to safely apply and use automated external defibrillators (AED) to get hearts beating regularly during cardiac events.

This course will train you to provide first aid for choking and other common accidents, illnesses, and medical problems that may occur anywhere. At the end of the course, you will acquire international accreditation that shows that you can save lives in times of crisis.

Enroll in this course

3. Basic First Aid: How to Be an Everyday Hero

Another course on free online first aid courses with certificates is Basic First Aid, a self-guided 2-week course on FutureLearn.

One of the things I enjoy about learning on FutureLearn is the discussions that go on at the end of every topic. FutureLearn provides a strong community and support for everyone. There, you can engage in meaningful discussions, share your knowledge, and learn from others.

In this course, You will learn how to recognize and manage emergencies and build a foundation of first aid knowledge plus new skill sets. It will give you the confidence you need to deal with basic first aid problems such as choking, severe cuts, etc.

Enroll in this course

4. First Aid Online Classes by American Red Cross

Remember how I couldn’t join the Red Cross Society because the requirements were beyond me? Well, here is big fat news, The American Red Cross now has free online first aid classes for everyone. Here, no one is going to ask you to sew uniforms or show up at meetings three times a week. You learn from certified instructors and professionals who know the job and know exactly how to teach people who have little or no knowledge.

When you take an online first aid class from the American Red Cross, you can learn the latest skills and techniques for administering care in your own time. To enroll in a course, you will be required to select a category and your location. You can also filter the results to show online courses only but you will manually scroll to find the free courses.

After you’ve signed up for a course, you will have unlimited two-year access to the course materials. This way, you can take your time getting through class, or complete all of the modules all at once, then revisit the materials and refresh your skills as needed.

Browse courses here

5. Free Online First Aid Course by American BLS

Another course on free online first aid courses with certificates is this basic first aid course by American BLS, a US-based company committed to providing quality emergency care training to individuals and businesses of all sizes.

In this course, you will learn the skills you need to recognize a life-threatening situation and act quickly and confidently to perform first aid on a victim and learn to save lives. The course will go over several common emergencies and give you the tools and information you need to properly treat each emergency.

This is a 3-hour course that uses a combination of text, images, video, and animations to demonstrate concepts and teach CPR techniques. It covers Choking (Heimlich Maneuver), Bleeding, Strokes, Poisoning, Allergic Reactions, Shortness of Breath, Asthma, Splints, Seizures, Bee Stings, Burns and so much more.

Enroll in this course

6. Become an EMT Specialization

For 7 months, you will be taking 5 free online first aid courses with certificates under the Become an EMT Specialization on Coursera with no experience required.

In this specialization, you will learn to care for injured or sick patients before they get to a hospital, how to identify time-sensitive diseases and medical and traumatic conditions that affect both adults and pediatric patients.

Course 1 ensures you can assess a scene and prepare to provide care, understand the framework for patient assessment, the history of emergency medical services, and the personal requirements to be an EMT. Course 2 addresses airway, breathing, and circulation, medications and medication administration that EMTs are allowed to provide, and how to identify a patient having a stroke or diabetic emergency.

Course 3 covers skills related to high-performance CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, toxicology, and wilderness emergency medicine. Course 4 offers skills for trauma emergencies and Course 5 focuses on pregnancy, infants, and pediatrics.

Enroll in this course

7. Online CPR Course

Another course on free online first aid courses with certificates is the Online CPR course by  FirstAidForFree, a beginner-friendly course that will teach you how to perform CPR on an adult, child, or infant.

There are 5 modules in this course which include an end-of-course quiz. Be sure to mark all the modules as completed otherwise you will not be able to download your online CPR certificate.

Enroll in this course

Conclusion

Enrolling in any of these courses will offer you all the training you need to become a first aider in the most convenient ways, with no requirements needed. The courses listed in this article are beginner-friendly and suitable for anyone at any time. If you are interested in becoming a certified first aider, this will make a great place to start.

How do you become a certified first aider?

To become a certified first aider, you have to enroll in a program or course, complete all the coursework, and pass the quizzes before you can qualify to earn a certificate.

Can you do first aid courses for free?

Yes, you can. In this article, we have listed some of the free online first aid courses with certificates. These courses will teach you all you need to know about first aid administration in emergencies.

Are online first aid courses legitimate?

According to the American Red Cross, online first aid courses do not include the opportunity for you to demonstrate skill proficiency to a certified instructor and therefore may not meet the requirements for workplace safety certification. If possible afterward, you should attend practical classes where you can demonstrate all you have learned for a fully legitimate certificate.

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