First Aid classes | Ten percent of Alameda County in California trained in Hands-Only CPR

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First Aid classes Ten percent of Alameda
County in California trained in Hands-Only CPR
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About 150,000 people in Alameda County in
California have been trained in Hands-Only CPR
through kits provided to 7th graders during the
last six years, as bystander CPR rates and
patient outcomes have improved. Now, the
California State Senate is considering whether
all students in the state should be trained under
a CPR before graduation bill that will be heard
in the Senate Education Committee on
Wednesday. The Alameda County program, known as
CPR-7, is different from most school-based CPR
education efforts because the nearly 10,000
7th-grade students are trained each year and then
challenged to use their new skills to train
friends or family members.
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This is an Emergency Medical Services community
outreach initiative, said Michael Jacobs,
cardiovascular care programs manager for the
countys EMS agency. Since the inception of
CPR-7 in 2010, we have seen a marginal
improvement in survival rates, but a surprisingly
marked improvement in neurologic function in
those who are discharged alive. Jacobs saw the
potential for youngsters to have a real-world
impact on their community almost a decade ago and
created the program after studying whether 7th or
10th grade would be a more appropriate setting.
Though students in both grades were able to learn
and remember the skills, the 7th graders were
more successful at teaching others. The Alameda
County students train close to five additional
people each on average, but every year some
greatly exceed that number, teaching dozens or
scores of community members, often through their
church or another community group. The current
record is held by Ellie Chan of Sunol, who
trained 120 community members in the 2014-15
school year.
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As part of the program, each student receives a
CPR Anytime kit, which includes a small
inflatable manikin and an instructional DVD.
Funding for the materials, less than 300,000 per
year, comes from an EMS trust fund for
improvements in the emergency medical care
system. Jamie Yee Hintzke, CPR-7 program
manager, is also president of the Board of
Education in Pleasanton, California, and a
longtime advocate for school health. Hintzke
became interested in CPR and AEDs when her
father-in-laws boss son died after he suffered
cardiac arrest during a basketball
game. Hintzke, who orchestrates the project in
all 18 school districts in the county, said she
frequently receives calls from across the country
from others interested in starting similar
programs. I tell them its about the money and
having the commitment to having this kind of
community impact, she said.
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Its also important for advocates to frame CPR
learning in educational terms, she said. Hands-on
CPR training fits well into the Common Core
framework. It can enhance a science or health
unit on body systems or help a PE class learn
about heart health and fitness, she said. The
training and community outreach program in the
county that includes Oakland, Fremont and
Berkeley is receiving national attention this
month thanks to an article in the Journal of
Emergency Medical Services by Eric Silverman,
M.D., an EMS/disaster medicine fellow at the
University of California, San Francisco at
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. The
article cites a training number of 120,000 as of
June 2015 this school years numbers are
expected to push the total above 150,000.
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Silvermans article examines the program from a
system of care perspective. You teach one
student and they teach family members and other
members of the community. That is how you get the
exponential growth, he said. Beyond the skills,
Silverman sees an additional benefit in educating
the next generation of citizens. Part of this
is making people feel comfortable helping
strangers and helping people in need. This
program encourages students to go to churches and
community groups and teach people they dont
know. That creates stronger community
bonds. Thirty-three states now have laws
requiring students to learn CPR before graduating
from high school, but California, the nations
most populous, is not currently among them. The
California State Senate Education Committee on
Wednesday was scheduled to hear a bill authored
by Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, who has worked
as an EMT for three decades in the San Gabriel
Valley.
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The State Assembly has already passed the
measure, and it is supported by the California
School Boards Association, the California State
PTA and California Professional
Firefighters. Learn more about First Aid classes.
Bergenfield, NJ, Jersey City, NJ, Livingston, NJ,
and Queens, New York and Gainesville,
FL. Source https//newsarchive.heart.org
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