Tagged with 'CPR'

CPR: Restart the Heart

Two trainers with CPR manikins demonstrating how to perform CPR with the text, "CPR Techniques and Variations for Saving Lives," on the left. Two trainers with CPR manikins demonstrating how to perform CPR with the text, "CPR Techniques and Variations for Saving Lives," on the left.

 

Due to recent incidents at sporting events and schools, there has been increased attention on CPR training. During health emergencies, performing CPR on an individual suffering from cardiac arrest could be the difference between life and death. According to the National Lung, Heart, and Blood Institute, there are around 300,000 to 450,000 deaths caused by cardiac arrest in the US every year.

 

The process to perform general CPR due to a cardiac arrest emergency is straightforward. Check to see if the individual is responsive and confirm that the surrounding area is safe. Call 911 immediately or have a bystander call for help. The individual should be on a flat surface, with their body and head in a neutral, laying position. Perpendicular to the chest of the individual, place your palm on the center of their chest, while interlacing your other hand on top. While positioning on your knees, stack your shoulder joints directly over your wrist joints with locked elbows for optimal compressions that will push the chest inward, about two inches deep, in a quick, constant rate until medical professionals arrive.

 

Men vs Women

It may come as a surprise that women are not only less likely to have CPR performed on them, but they are also found to have lower rates of survival than men, even when CPR is performed. According to the American Heart Association, the factors that play into this difference include fears of accusations relating to sexual assault or sexual harassment, fears of causing physical harm to the female receiving CPR, or the person administering CPR may feel uncomfortable or unsure working near breasts.

 

Most manikins that people train with are modeled after men’s anatomy. However, in recent years, models and attachments have been created to mimic female anatomy, such as School Health’s PRESTAN Female Accessory. This creates a more accurately designed manikin and allows for an individual to practice performing CPR in a more realistic situation.

 

Infants, Toddlers, Adults

Differences in CPR application do not end there. CPR can be performed on all individuals to continuously help pump blood through the body, but certain individuals require different techniques.

 

CPR is taught using the two-hand method, however, if the individual suffering a cardiac arrest emergency is not an adult, different styles of CPR may be used instead. A toddler or child would usually not require the full force of two adult hands. For a smaller child or toddler, a one-hand method can be used to provide CPR. This is similar to the regular CPR method, but without the second, overlaying hand. For an infant, a two-finger or two-thumb method may be used to compress the chest, so as not to hurt the newborn.

 

Results

Performing CPR on an individual can double, or even triple, their chances of survival if administered immediately. It is important to perform CPR correctly on both men and women to give each a better chance at survival. While a child or infant may have a lower chance of a cardiac arrest emergency that requires CPR, giving those individuals a higher chance of survival matters, too. Every second counts!

 

 

 

 

References

https://cpr.heart.org/en/resources/cpr-facts-and-stats

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.142.suppl_4.139

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2020/11/23/why-people-fear-performing-cpr-on-women-and-what-to-do-about-it

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/cardiac-arrest

https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/cpr/performing-cpr/child-baby-cpr

CPR & AED Awareness for Your School

Cardiac Arrest

National CPR and AED Awareness Week is June 1st through June 7th! Now more than ever, it’s important to ensure that your equipment is up to date in case of emergency. According to the American Heart Association, cardiac arrest occurs in about 7,000 children outside of the hospital each year. In addition, there are also about 10,000 cardiac arrest events in the workplace every year. It could happen to any student or faculty member and making sure those in an educational environment are properly trained can save a life.

 

AED Maintenance & Accessories

Just as CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and AED (automated external defibrillator) certification needs to be renewed every couple years, batteries and pads for AED devices must also be maintained. Depending on model and life expectancy of the device, batteries and pads must be replaced every two to five years. For example, a Zoll AED 3 has both an electrode pad and battery lifespan of five years. This specific device even includes a warranty of eight years for the device itself and its battery. Be vigilant for any wear and tear of an AED, however, a service indicator light will appear if maintenance is necessary. Every AED is different, so always consult the owner’s manual for proper care and device use.

 

In preparation of an emergency, additional AED accessories, which include cases, wall mounted cabinets, kits, and more, can be used to extend device use and decrease upkeep. Not every educational facility requires the installation or availability of an AED device but being aware of AED locations is valuable in case of an emergency. For quick access, signage for AEDs should be placed in high traffic areas, such as hallways, main entrances, gymnasiums, auditoriums, cafeterias, and the nurse’s office. If unsure about proper care and display regulations, SH Connect, School Health’s AED compliance management service, helps schools ensure their AED Systems are compliant with local state and federal laws. This service and app can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, and it allows users to sort customizable reports to access information about their AEDs in order to ensure they are operating properly.

 

CPR & AED Training

CPR Certification through the American Heart Association costs about one dollar per student and only takes one class period to be trained. When a victim is given CPR immediately, their chances of survival double – or even triple. However, less than 40 states in the US require CPR training for high school students before they graduate. The CPR certification that students and faculty can receive will be valid for two years.

 

Along with CPR, an AED can further increase an individual’s chances of survival in a case of cardiac arrest. Those who receive a shock from an AED within the first minute of cardiac arrest, have a 90% chance of living through the event. While an AED can be an investment, the training certification through the American Heart Association is still a quick process and costs only slightly more than the cost of being CPR certified.

 

Stay Aware

National CPR and AED Awareness Week can help remind students and faculty how to prepare to save someone that experiences cardiac arrest. Applying CPR and maintaining AEDs might be a straightforward process but deciding which AED your school needs can be an overwhelming choice. School Health can assist with this impactful decision and can help find the correct device that would best fit your facility.

 

 

References

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2018/11/09/defibrillators-may-help-kids-survive-cardiac-arrest

https://cpr.heart.org/-/media/CPR-Files/Courses-and-Kits/CPRiS/CPR-in-Schools-Advocacy-Flyer-ucm_499702.pdf

https://cpr.heart.org/en/courses/cpr-in-schools-training-kits

https://cpr.heart.org/-/media/CPR-Files/Training-Programs/AED-Implementation/AED-Statistics-Infographic-English-ucm_501517.pdf

https://cpr.heart.org/en/courses/heartsaver-first-aid-cpr-aed-course-options

What You Need to Know About Cardiac Emergency Response

Badge_SH_CardiacEmergencyResponseIn 2015, the American Heart Association (AHA) reported over 326,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest events. When cardiac arrest events occur outside of the hospital, the average survival rate is just 10.3 percent.But did you know that survival rates are three times higher if the event is witnessed by a bystander? And when a victim receives assistance, even by a lay bystander, the chances of survival can double, and in some cases triple! [1]

Take Action and Saves Lives

The first minutes of a cardiac emergency are the most critical, and even the best emergency medical services (EMS) personnel can’t reach victims right away. A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed that people who suffer cardiac arrest on the upper floors of high-rise buildings are less likely to survive than those on the lowest floors. The higher floors are associated with longer response times for EMS personnel to reach victims, and they directly correlate to lower survival rates.[2]

But with a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan (CERP), we can help bridge the gap between a cardiac emergency and the arrival of EMS personnel. A CERP is a written document that outlines specific steps to take when a cardiac emergency occurs. According to the AHA, “A carefully orchestrated response to cardiac emergencies will reduce deaths in school settings and help ensure that chaos does not lead to an improper or inadequate response.” [3]

Is Your Cardiac Emergency Response Plan Complete?

Essential parts of a CERP include making sure that you have adequate staff on hand who are trained in CPR. When CPR is performed, even by a lay bystander, a victim’s chance of survival is greatly improved. Products like the AHA’s CPR in Schools Training Kit is an essential tool for training staff and students the proper way to perform CPR.

A CERP will also include making sure your school has enough AEDs, and that your AEDs are properly located. Remember that timing immediately after a cardiac emergency is critical. The number of AEDs at your school should be sufficient to enable your response team to retrieve an AED and respond to a victim within two minutes, both inside the school and on the school grounds. AEDs should have clear signage and should always be in locations that are always accessible. School Health offers a full line of AEDs and accessories to make sure that your school has the equipment you need.

Proper maintenance of AEDs is also critical. Imagine the nightmare scenario of investing in an AED program but not maintaining it. Suddenly a cardiac emergency occurs and your AED is retrieved only to find that the pads or batteries have expired. We hear from people who try to maintain their AED program using an Excel spreadsheet, but that is simply not enough – especially when your campus contains many AEDs or AEDs distributed across campus locations.

School Health Brand AED Program Management helps you manage all the AEDs at your location and even across your campus.  What’s more, this system tracks all your responder certifications so you know that each person on your cardiac emergency response team has proper and continuous training. And, it keeps you compliant with local and state regulations by automatically registering your AEDs with local EMS services. You will even receive direct updates about changes to the regulations in your area.

When you have a complete CERP and include these essential elements, you can save lives when a cardiac emergency occurs. School Health works directly with the AHA to make sure that we can provide the products and information you need to be prepared. If you would like a consultation or on-site visit to discuss your CERP or lifesaving products for your school, please contact us.

[1] http://www.sca-aware.org/sca-news/aha-releases-2015-heart-and-stroke-statistics

[2] http://www.cmaj.ca/content/188/6/413

[3] http://cpr.heart.org/idc/groups/heart-public/@wcm/@ecc/documents/downloadable/ucm_477110.pdf

Let’s Talk About Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Schools

october-cardiac-200x300Each year, approximately 7,000 children age 18 or younger experience sudden cardiac arrest outside a hospital with survival rates of less than 10 percent. Immediate CPR can double or triple someone’s chance of survival, which is important for schools since children spend at least one-third of their days in this environment.

Yet only 34 states require CPR training and hands-on practice as a high school graduation requirement and just four mandate school planning for sudden cardiac arrest. That leaves 15 states and the District of Columbia without laws related to CPR, AEDs or cardiac emergency response plans (CERPs) in schools.

Last month, School Nurse published a policy statement from the American Heart Association advocating for state laws requiring the implementation of CERPs in K-12 schools. Cardiac Emergency Response Planning for Schools: A Policy Statement provides a national model for K-12 schools to develop, implement, practice and evaluate a CERP, while addressing the legal aspects and critical nature of training and drills in bringing a CERP to fruition.

The statement recommends that all schools have a CERP in place that contains the following minimum, evidence-based core elements:

  • Establishing a cardiac emergency response team

  • Activating the team in response to a sudden cardiac arrest

  • Implementing automated external defibrillator (AED) placement and routine maintenance within the school (similar to fire extinguisher protocols)

  • Disseminating the plan throughout the school campus

  • Maintaining ongoing staff training in CPR/AED use

  • Practicing using drills (akin to fire and lockdown drills)

  • Integrating local EMS with the plan

  • Ongoing and annual review and evaluation of the plan.


Monica Martin Goble, MD, AHA volunteer and pediatric cardiologist at the University of Michigan Congenital Heart Center, was co-chair of the working group that authored the paper. She says, “Every minute counts in sudden cardiac arrest. The safety of students, school staff and visitors will only be enhanced by school teams that feel empowered to administer lifesaving care until EMS arrives.” 

A key component to high-quality CPR training is a psychomotor component, or hands-on training. Programs like the AHA’s CPR in Schools Training Kit™ enable students to learn the lifesaving skills of CPR in just one class period. Plus, the kit teaches AED use and choking relief. For school administrators interested in developing a plan, a CERP toolkit, including the policy statement and an accompanying “Policy-in-Brief” can be accessed at heart.org/cerp.

This October, we invite you to join the AHA and School Health as we work together to increase survival from sudden cardiac arrest, especially in school settings. #CPRSavesLives

CPR Week: Learn Two Simple Steps to Save a Life

DS-11042 SH CPRWeek Banner-1024x427_jpg (2)

CPR and AED Awareness Week is Every June 1-7


Statistically speaking, did you know that if you are called on to give CPR in an emergency, you will most likely be trying to save the life of someone you love? This could be a parent, child, friend, or a student.

June 1-7 is National CPR and AED Awareness Week. In 2007, the American Heart Association worked collaboratively with the American Red Cross and the National Safety Council to federally designate a National CPR and AED Awareness Week. On December 13, 2007, Congress unanimously passed a resolution to set aside this week each year to spotlight how lives can be saved if more Americans know CPR and how to use an AED. In the declaration, Congress asked states and municipalities to make AEDs more publicly accessible. Schools around the country emphasize the importance of CPR and AED use during this week each year with CPR/AED classes and live events/demonstrations that are conducted.

The AHA invites you to celebrate National CPR and AED Awareness Week in your school. To help get you started, we have created FREE materials that you can print on your school’s printer. Simply visit heart.org/cprweek to access these materials which can be used by themselves or in conjunction with an existing CPR course, like the CPR in Schools Training Kit.

Join the AHA and its Mission to Increase Survival from Cardiac Arrest


We are asking all educators to please take a few minutes out of your day to learn a potentially lifesaving skill. In just 90 seconds, you can learn the two simple steps to Hands-Only CPR by watching this video and sharing the link with your students and co-workers.

Thank you for learning how to save a life!

Free CPR Training Resource Helps Students and Community to Save Lives


Is Your Campus Prepared for a Cardiac Emergency?


Each year, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the United States. Cardiac arrest is an electrical malfunction in the heart that causes an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) and disrupts the flow of blood to the brain, lungs and other organs.

Survival stats are grim. Over 70 percent of cardiac arrests happen outside of the hospital, which means this can happen anywhere - at home, at work, or even in an educational setting. About 90 percent of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die. And while CPR, especially if performed in the first few minutes of cardiac arrest, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival, only about 46% of people who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest get the immediate help that they need before professional help arrives.

Students play in integral part in increasing survival from cardiac arrest. Currently, 31 states require CPR training, including hands on practice on a manikin, as a high school graduation requirement. As of result of this legislation, approximately 1.8 million students (nearly 60 percent of the U.S. student population) are trained each year in the lifesaving skill of CPR.

Being prepared and confident to respond requires keeping skills as fresh as possible. That’s why the American Heart Association recommends receiving CPR training every two years and why it is currently exploring ways to bridge the gap between mandatory high school training and university-level courses.

Since the needs of university level students differ greatly from the needs of middle or high school students, the American Heart Association has introduced the brand new CPR in Schools University Toolkit. The toolkit consists of free resources for event activation, promotion, and social media resources for student athletes, members of a Greek organizations, resident assistants, student government officers, club members, among others. These resources provide everything needed to plan, organize and execute a CPR training event for students on campus.

Bring CPR Training to Your Campus with AHA's CPR in Schools Training Kit


55583fl_w_3_1The AHA’s CPR in Schools Training Kit is an all-in-one educational program that provides an opportunity for college students to bring Hands-Only CPR training to their campuses. Hands-Only CPR is CPR without mouth-to-mouth breaths. It is the recommended approach for anyone who has not been trained by a credentialed instructor who sees a teen or adult suddenly collapse in an out-of-hospital setting.

This kit allows college students to facilitate Hands-Only CPR trainings with their fellow students and spread the message of Hands-Only CPR. In this leadership role, students teach other students how to save lives.

The training kit comes complete with support from the American Heart Association, the trusted leader in heart health. These kits are easy to use, durable, and are designed to train 10 -20 people at once. The kit is also reusable, so one kit can train hundreds of people. Plus, you do not need to be an AHA instructor which is why thousands of high schools and middle schools throughout the country are currently using these kits. The kit can also be used to train campus faculty, staff and community members to extend the lifesaving skills into the community.

Students learn so much in college, but it’s also important to continue the skills they learned in high school. Please share this with friends and family to make students aware that they can become a part of the generation of lifesavers and help save a life with CPR.

Grant for Teaching CPR in Schools

 

John Meiners Photo 2015_editedThis blog has been written by John Meiners. John Meiners is Executive Vice President of Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) Programs and International Strategies for the American Heart Association (AHA). In this key role, John leads AHA’s global effort to increase survival from cardiac arrest by working toward AHA’s global goal of reducing mortality from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 25% by 2025.



Creating the Next Generation of Lifesavers


In the United States, 38 people every hour will have a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital. However, only 10 percent of these victims will survive. Seventy percent of the time, cardiac arrests will occur in the home. Lifesaving CPR performed by a bystander can double or even triple a person’s chance of surviving a cardiac arrest. The life you save by performing CPR is most likely to be your own family or friend!


Students play an integral part of increasing survival from cardiac arrest. Twenty-four states now require all students to be trained in CPR, with hands-on practice on a manikin, before graduating from high school. That means approximately 1.2 million students (nearly 40 percent of the U.S. student population) will be trained in CPR each year! The American Heart Association (AHA) is actively involved in helping to create the next generations of lifesavers who will help increase the chance that a cardiac arrest victim has the help he or she needs until paramedics arrive.

0807 CPR in Schools Map-01


Apply for a Grant to Train Your Students


renditionDownloadIn the first year of the AHA-Ross Dress for Less Stores CPR in Schools Program, we have trained more than 330,000 middle school students in life-saving CPR. Over three years, more than 1,000,000 students in 33 states will learn CPR. For more information about this successful CPR in Schools Program, please visit here.

We are excited to announce our newest grant program for high schools! Because of the generous donation from the Ross Stores Foundation, 250 high schools across the country will receive 2 FREE CPR in Schools Training Kits™ in the 2015-2016 school year. This all-in-one kit contains 10 manikins and materials for school teachers or administrators to train hundreds of students, as well as online resources to make implementation easy. Students learn the core skills of CPR in under 30 minutes, and it contains everything needed to learn CPR, AED skills and choking relief in school classroom settings. The easy-to-use kit utilizes the AHA’s latest science guidelines and it is portable, allowing for easy storage. It was developed for educators, school nurses or even student leaders to train groups of 10-20 students at once in a school setting.

If you’d like to learn more about getting your school involved, visit www.heart.org/rosscprschoolgrant.


Hurry! The deadline for grant applications is September 30th, 2015.

Remember, cardiac arrests can happen to anyone, anywhere, and when you least expect it.


Abby Snodgrass is one of those students that was able to learn CPR in high school and become a lifesaver. This is her story:

Abby was out shopping when she heard commotion on the next aisle. She ran to see what was going on and saw an 11-month-old baby who suddenly stopped breathing. Abby had recently learned CPR at her Hillsboro High school in Missouri and immediately starting performing the lifesaving technique. The baby eventually started breathing again, and emergency responders said if Abby had not acted so fast, the baby might have died.

This is just one of the many great stories of students saving lives through CPR they learned in school, thanks in part to partners like Ross Stores who donate funds to provide grants for hundreds of high schools across the country. While we’ve made some great progress over the years, we also need your help to expand this program across the country! If CPR training is not currently required in your state, join us in supporting legislation at http://becprsmart.org.

We thank you for being such an integral part of creating safer communities. Together, we can increase survival from cardiac arrest.

For incredible save stories and insightful SCA information please visit the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation.