PHECC - Learner Information

"The Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) is an independent statutory body who set the standards for education and training for pre-hospital emergency care in Ireland. The Council publish clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and recognise institutions to provide pre-hospital emergency care training and education." 


First Aid Response or FAR is PHECC’s foundation first aid course that trains course participants to provide first aid for a person who becomes suddenly unwell or injured until the arrival of emergency medical services. FAR includes the full Cardiac First Response (CFR) Community standard also.

A first aid responder may be a healthcare practitioner or a member of the public who has undertaken a First Aid Response course. The first aid responder will be taught how to assess and manage patients in accordance with their training in keeping with the PHECC FAR standard and clinical practice guidelines (CPGs).

Only PHECC Recognised Institutions (RI), Approved Training Institutions (ATI) can deliver a FAR course. The course should take no less than 18 teaching contact hours (averaging 6 hours per day), but can also be delivered on a modular basis e.g. over successive weekends. It will be delivered by a certified FAR instructor who will lead and guide you through the course. You can expect the course to be delivered by a combination of presentations, demonstrations, and lots of practical sessions. The CFR part of the course takes about 4-5 hours and is video lead. The assessment will be skills based and a short multiple choice question exam designed to reinforce the knowledge and skills learnt on the course.

All successful course participants must be given a joint PHECC/recognised institution (RI) or approved training institution (ATI) FAR card/certificates. The certificate will expire after 2 years when you may recertify.

You should contact the PHECC Recognised Institutions (RI) or Approved Training Institutions (ATI) where you completed the course.

If you completed the training with FRS Training, contact us and we can provide you with a copy of your certificate once it is within 2 years since completion. 

FRS Training in line with their Data Protection policy retains learner information for the purpose of claiming certification and in line with PHECC data retention guidelines. 

The current guideline of 13 months months following the issuing of certification applies.

Soft copies of certification and detail of learner/cert date of issue is retained for 2 years.

FRS Training cannot provide a learner with a copy of any of these documents after that timeframe.