CPR First Aid | Why CPR AED Training Matter

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CPR First Aid Why CPR AED Training
Matter
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None of us expect the unexpected. With 10,000
cardiac arrests in the workplace every year, you
should understand the benefits of CPR
training. By Gina Mayfield When it comes to
ensuring safe and healthful work conditions, we
tend to focus on finding and fixing commonly
recognized hazards such as clearly preventable
injuries and illnesses. While these dangers
certainly warrant our attention, what about
expecting the unexpected, such as an employee
experiencing a cardiac arrest outside the
hospital? Is your workplace fully prepared for an
incident that requires CPR or even a
defibrillator?
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June is CPR Awareness Month, with the first few
days designated as National CPR and AED Awareness
Week. Both occasions were designed to bring
attention to the importance of CPR and AED
training that organizations can provide to keep
their employees safe, prepared to respond
andalive. Trained employees who can properly and
quickly respond to an out-of-hospital cardiac
arrest before emergency responders arrive can
help save a life. Cardiac arrestan electrical
malfunction in the heart that causes an irregular
heartbeat (arrhythmia) and disrupts the flow of
blood to the brain, lungs and other organsis a
leading cause of death. Each year, more than
350,000 EMS-assessed out-of-hospital cardiac
arrests occur in the United States, according to
the American Heart Association (AHA).
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Be Ready CPR When a person has an
out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, survival depends
on immediately receiving CPR from someone
nearby. According to the AHA, about 90 percent
of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac
arrests die. CPR, especially if performed
immediately, can double or triple a cardiac
arrest victims chance of survival. But most
U.S. employees are not prepared to handle cardiac
emergencies at work because they simply lack the
training, according to findings from two surveys
from AHA as part of its Workplace Safety Training
Initiative. Between February and April 2017,
researchers surveyed 2,000 employees in various
fields such as corporate offices, hospitality,
education and industry/labor.
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Study findings revealed that most employees do
not have access to CPR and first aid training,
and half could not locate an automated external
defibrillator (AED) at work (helpful hint place
it in the same location as the fire
extinguisher). Such training has the potential to
save thousands of lives, considering there are
10,000 cardiac arrests in the workplace
annually. The second survey from OSHA and
commissioned by AHA included more than 1,000
safety managers in industries regulated by OSHA.
The safety managers see a need for more frequent
training, but a third of them said first aid, CPR
and AED training only become a priority at their
workplace after a demonstrated need, meaning
after an incident. All of this data brings to
light an important realization Employees may be
relying on untrained peers in the event of an
emergency, which creates a false sense of
security. Many may wrongly believe there is
someone onsite who is qualified and able to
respond, but thats clearly not always the case.
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Heres the good news The study shows that more
than 90 percent of employees would take First Aid
and CPRAED training if employers offered
it. Save Lives AED Awareness Use of an AED is
the third step in the cardiac arrest chain of
survival, with the first two steps being a call
to 9-1-1 and beginning immediate CPR. During a
cardiac arrest, the electrical activity in the
heart is disrupted. According to the AHA, every
second counts because without immediate CPR, the
heart, brain and other vital organs arent
receiving enough oxygenated blood. For every
minute without CPR, the chance of death increases
by 10 percent. Survival from cardiac arrest
doubles when a bystander applies an AED before
emergency responders arrive, according to 2018
research published in AHAs flagship journal,
Circulation.
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Unfortunately, less than half (45.7 percent) of
cardiac arrest victims get the immediate help
they need before emergency responders arrive, in
part because medical services take, on average,
between four and 10 minutes to reach someone in
cardiac arrest. An international team of
researchers looked at 49,555 out-of-hospital
cardiac arrests that occurred in major cities in
the U.S. and Canada. They analyzed a key
subgroup of these arrests those that occurred in
public were witnessed by bystanders, and the
patients were shockable. The researchers found
that nearly 66 percent of these victims survived
to hospital discharge after a shock delivered by
a bystander. Their findings emphasized that
bystandersor for our purposes, coworkersmake a
critical difference in assisting cardiac arrest
victims before emergency responders can get to
the scene.
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Be the Difference. Its Simple. If you want to
be a part of a larger culture of safety in the
workplace and are interested in getting CPR and
AED training at work, its not difficult to do.
Helpful resources from quality organizations such
as AHA provide beneficial training. For example,
AHAs Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED Training
course teaches participants to provide first aid,
perform CPR and use an AED in a safe, timely and
effective manner. The course is designed for
those with little or no medical training who want
to be prepared for an emergency in any
setting. The course covers the basics such as
first aid as well as medical, injury and
environmental emergencies. But it also delves
into preventing illness and injury,
opioid-associated life-threatening emergencies,
Child CPR AED and Infant CPR in addition to Adult
CPR and AED use.
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Youll just need to decide what type of training
works best for your team. You could go with a
blended learning approach, such as AHAs Blended
Learning Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED Online
class, which combines online instruction with a
hands-on skills session. Or you could opt for a
Classroom Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED class,
which is an instructor-led, hands-on class format
in either a training center or your place of
business. Both video-based, instructor-led
courses teach students critical skills needed to
respond to and manage an emergency until medical
services arrive. The practice-while-watching
technique allows instructors to observe the
students, provide constructive feedback and guide
the students learning of skills. AHA also offers
a CPR First Aid Anywhere Training Kit, a
video-based kit that can be easily facilitated by
anyone to train hundreds of individuals.
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When performing CPR, the beat of the song
examples above corresponds to pushing on the
chest at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per
minute. Note that AHA still recommends CPR with
compressions and breaths for infants and children
and victims of drowning, drug overdose or people
who collapse due to breathing problems. To get a
better sense of Hands-Only CPR, which is a
natural introduction to CPR, you can watch a
90-section instructional video at
heart.org/handsonlycpr. Then find a CPR class
near you at heart.org/findacourse. One last
thing to keep in mind In one year alone, 475,000
people die from cardiac arrest in the United
States. While thats a big number, it also
presents a big opportunity.
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Consider being an organization that commits to
proactively fostering a safe environment and
empowers its people to take on a small social
responsibility that can have a big impact at
work, home and in the community as a
whole. Learn more about CPR First Aid.
Bergenfield, NJ, Jersey City, NJ, Livingston, NJ,
and Queens, New York and Gainesville,
FL. Source https//cprblog.heart.org