St. John Ambulance

Joe Chan was my instructor today. It may have been a long day but it was nice that Joe made it fun. He was very helpful at making sure you understood everything. I Look forward to hopefully renewing in 3 years with Joe and in new west location.

Joe was a great teacher for OFA1! Engaging and a great sense of humor. Helped the day go by quickly!

Recently I recertified my OFA Level 1 and CPR with Instructor Joe Chan. I have experienced many FA recertifications over the last four decades and due to Covid I was "expired" for the first time in all those years. Joe Chan is a highly competant Instructor and my first experience in the private sector as my previous classes were all Government Agency training models. Moving forward I will continue to seek out Joe Chan for any future training needs.

Dano
ProServ Tactical

Thoroughly enjoyed my class here with Mr Sunil as an instructor. At the end, I wished it was a 2-day class or more. He made the concepts easy to understand. I’m glad I was opportuned to attend.

After reading all the great comments about Joe, I am sorry I was not so fortunate to have him for my week of OFA Level 2 training.

I want to preface this review by saying that I am an RN and currently work for a Lower Mainland Health Authority as a safety advisor. I have a lot of experience in education, working for a decade as an educational assistant in a high school, and currently facilitating provincial violence prevention classes.

The instructor I had at SJA was unprofessional and disrespectful, and fostered a tone of fear and anxiety. To say his "teaching style" was outdated is an understatement. He often yelled at students, and quickly established an environment that discouraged students from asking questions, despite frequently unclear instructions. During our afternoon self-guided practice time, he sat at his desk scrolling the internet with earbuds in, making it clear that he did not want to be disturbed. I frequently had classmates (who knew I am a nurse) line up to ask me questions, and the instructor made no attempt to make himself available even when observing this.

This instructor did not ask for consent before physically touching students during demonstrations, and once walked up to a seated student from behind, without her realizing he was there, and reached around her to demonstrate seated abdominal thrusts.

I saw many of my classmates close to tears and trembling with anxiety during this terrible class. The instructor cleverly ensured he would have no poor reviews by distributing our instructor evaluations after our practice skills test where we were all made acutely aware of the possibility of failing our actual tests on the following day. He rushed us to fill them out, and walked around collecting them, so we knew he would have every opportunity to peruse them afterwards. After collecting, I confirmed with the student next to me that despite the terrible instruction, he felt he had no choice but to give a good review to avoid failing the class (of course there is a lot of pressure not to fail and cost your employer not only the class fees but an entire week's lost wages). Immediately after collecting the evaluations, the instructor told us that “by the way, there’s an online evaluation but I prefer you do the paper one”, and it was obvious why.

To top it all off, the instructor only occasionally and sporadically wore a surgical mask, and because some activities such as assisted breathing required us not to wear masks (while physically active administering CPR so breathing heavily as well) the risk for COVID transmission was high, and I tested positive on the morning of the 5th day (testing day). After working in healthcare through the past 2.5 years, sometimes on COVID units in hospitals, I was not happy to be put in an unsafe situation like this.

There were more issues, but I’ll leave it at that other than to say that the regional manager of SJA failed to contact me despite my manager giving him my email address to discuss my concerns, making it obvious that these issues are not something he was concerned about. The health authority I work for, despite many years of sending staff to SJA, will no longer be doing so and we will be recommending staff attend first aid training through another organization.

Of course, there are many people working at SJA, and I’m sure many are wonderful, but the fact that someone like the instructor I had has been allowed to get away with what I saw when I was there speaks to the fact that choosing SJA is a risk and one I deeply regret. Never again.

Joe Chan at the New West branch was a great instructor for my one day emergency first aid course and made the day informative and entertaining. The mix of teaching and hands on learning in the course feels balanced and Joe’s added stories and experiences really helped make the material easy to remember. Lovely experience!

Joe Chan is a fantastic instructor. His comedic ways keep you entertained while consuming lots of important information. If you don't get the opportunity to have Joe as your instructor, I do believe you are missing out on a fabulous learning experience. Thank you for making this an unforgettable day.

Learnt a lot. I am so glad that Joe Chan was my instructor, very cheerful. Loved his style of training and definitely easy to approach. He made sure that everyone understood the concept.

Had a great time in the First Aid Level 1 training course. Our instructor, Joe Chan, made the experience memorable and fun! Very educational and the certificate is valid for 3 years.

It was a pleasure to be in Joe's class. He was professional at all times but never a dull moment. Fast paced but able to cover a lot of topics. Learned a lot from him.

Very very nice class with Joe Chan! Humorous and wit language to make the class a lots of fun! Thanks Joe for your hard work!

I was recertifying for OFA1/ Standard First Aid for the billionth time and the instructor, Joe, was funny and engaging, and the course was fairly simple and straightforward for the most part. I would do it with him again.

Joe is an experienced instructor, his OFA level 1 class is fun and easy to follow at the same time. Thank you!

My instructor was Joe Chan at New Westminster Branch. When I first walked in to the room with that feeling of “ugh. 8hrs of my golden weekend”; but Joe changed the whole depression to 180 degrees. Ive never had an instructor with such an entertaining vibe! He is a great instructor giving all needed tips and information for this class. Sharing his experiences and knowledge was extremely useful and appreciated. I was surprised of how he never got tired throughout the whole teaching time. I was never bored and 8hrs class went so fast. I would definitely come back to take his class after 3yrs! Saying bye to each other with a smile was a plus! Loved this class with Joe. Thank you and keep it up, hope to see you again.

Joe Chan was a great instructor! SJA has the best training.

Would've ranked 5 stars but I was charged $25 to reschedule my training when I had covid

The best learning and training experience i’ve ever had and the instructor is super cool and fun not boring.hehehe.good job joe chan….

Inspector Joe Chan,
Thanks for the deep knowledge and explanation, your class was fantastic,
Thanks that we have someone like you.

Joe Chan was a great First Aid instructor! I have been to many other courses and found them very dry and boring. Especially when going for a 8 hour day.
Joe was very enthusiastic and hilarious! I would highly recommend him.

Excellent training techniques, practical first aid skill with fun and real case sharing that I had never met. Even I had attended St. John training in Hong Kong more than 12 years (New and refresher courses), Mr. Joe Lap Cho Chan is a very engaging and passionate instructor! I will deeply recommend all my friend/colleagues to join Joe’ s first aid training. Honestly, it is extra bonus for us (Hong Kong people) if Cantonese class is available！
Last but not least, thank you Joe for these two days of meaningful time for me when it is the first certificate for me in Canada. Cheers！

Joe made the OFA1 training interesting and engaging. It’s not always the easiest of material to stay focused on so I appreciate an instructor who can make the day fun. Hope to see you again in 3 years!

My most favourite First Aid Class by far! Our instructor Joe Chan (a.k. A One punch man) was just wonderful! He was very engaging in the class by asking questions and being humorous & I actually learned much better this time as a result. You can certainly tell he genuinely cares about the students and wants them to do & be well. I highly recommend this place and Joe specifically!

Great overall experience taking the BC-EFA class at the New West location - mostly credit going to instructor Joe Chan. He was thorough and friendly and the class had a great atmosphere

Joe Lap Cho Chan is a very engaging, passionate and entertaining instructor! You can tell he is a very multitalented individual! I learned a lot and the 8 hour class went by quickly because of his energy. If you take a first aid class then i recommend you book Joe Chan as your instructor! I'm glad i met him and hope to see him again soon!

Amazing staff and great programs. Special thanks to John and Gift for their hard work and care!

Ignore the bad reviews! There’s new management. I just completed a 2 day course here - it was well done! The instructor (Danni) was very well informed and an excellent instructor! I would recommend this training to anyone; you never know when you may need it!

I had called to confirm that the course I was about to register for was what my employer required, knowing little about the courses myself. I was reassured that I needed Emergency First Aid Level C course and once I found out that I was misinformed by staff and I in fact needed Standard First Aid, they refused to help. So now i have to repeat 16 hours of training again and pay full amount for another course even though I already did a course on their recommendation. The justification I received was "we aren't liable for incorrect recommendations". So what I've learnt is, the staff can lie or provide misinformation, you pay twice, you spend double the time and there are no consequences or amelioration. DO NOT TAKE THEIR WORD FOR WHICH COURSE TO TAKE. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

Signed up for a standard first aid refresher course at this location on a Sunday and the instructor was a no show. St. John Ambulance did not provide instructor name nor contact information in its confirmation, and their offices (local and national) were closed for the weekend. Couldn't contact anyone to inquire. The entire class sat outside in the stairwell for an hour before we all decided to leave. Asking for a refund was a nightmare, not to mention a waste of time