Stop The Bleed, a national curriculum from the American College of Surgeons, teaches people to stop or slow bleeding, and has been offered at no cost to schools through the State of Iowa’s Department of Health and Human Services.

“The course teaches people the ABCs of bleeding control which are Alert, Bleeding, and Compress, as well as the use of tourniquets to stop bleeding when pressure does not work,” said Tyler Johnson, who is a program coordinator at Webster County Health Department.

He teaches the course in HHS Service Area 7 which includes Buena Vista, Calhoun, Clay, Emmet, Hamilton, Humboldt, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Sac, and Webster counties.

Southeast Valley School District in Gowrie has most of the staff in all four district buildings trained in Stop The Bleed. It also has kits in all classrooms and other strategic locations throughout each building.

More than 100 staff members at Fort Dodge Community School District have been trained in the program with school nurses and athletic trainers also participating in a train-the-trainer program so the curriculum can be implemented into health classes to train students.

More than 200 staff in the Manson Northwest Webster and Humboldt school districts have also been trained in the program.

“Bleeding is the number one cause of preventable death after an injury,” said Johnson. “Through the training and kits provided to schools with this program, we are helping save a life in any bleeding emergency. The training and kits can be used for all types of bleeding, including falls, shop accidents, auto accidents, as well as active intruder events. I am hopeful that the training and kits that we’ve provided will never have to be used, but we want to have schools prepared.”

Since July 2024, Johnson and Service Area 7 have placed approximately 1,000 Stop the Bleed kits in nearly 20 school districts. All kits include packing gauze, gloves, trauma shears, a C-A-T tourniquet, permanent marker, and emergency bandages.

The kits and training are available at no cost through the Iowa HHS Public Health Emergency Preparedness and EMS System Development grant. According to Johnson, one requirement of the grant is that for each kit requested, one staff member must be trained, thus if a school requests 200 kits, they must have at least 200 staff members trained in Stop The Bleed.

“Several schools across our service area have trained entire school staff, far exceeding the number of kits that have been requested,” said Johnson.

In addition to Webster County Health Department providing the Stop The Bleed training, Humboldt and Calhoun County health departments have done training in their areas as well.

“Having the ability to work with schools to better prepare them has been a highlight of the last year,” said Johnson. “We have fostered new relationships across our area and helped bring different agencies together for the betterment of our schools, their staff, and students. I’ve been able to work alongside so many great people in the process. I want to personally thank all the trainers in our service area for making this a priority, and locally I would like to thank Webster County Emergency Manager Dylan Hagen for helping get Webster County school staff trained. Without all the trainers, this program would not be possible.”