Terre Pruitt's Blog

Oh, thank you for coming back.  If you don’t know what I mean, perhaps you want to read part one first.  I realize that to some of you this may not be new, but I get excited when I learn something new.  I think that is why I love to teach.  I want to help people learn stuff and perhaps feel excitement.  Here is the rest of what I learned in the latest CPR/AED class that I was required to take.

We were told that through a little survey it was discovered that as high as 65% of first responders didn’t time the chest compressions right. This made me feel very, very, very good. The optimal is 110 compressions per minute. Getting the timing correct is very challenging to me – as I explained – so to hear that even first responders found it challenging was encouraging. To help with this issue in 2019 the 911 system has started using metronomes. There are metronome applications for phones. Download one and set it to 110 beats per minute and there you go. Compress when it ticks. Now there is no having to think about if you are doing it too fast or too slow, just make sure you can hear the metronome and press down when you do!

It has also been discovered that decompression is just as important as compression. There might be a tendency to lean on the chest or not come up enough to allow the chest to decompress and the heart fill with blood. Compressing the chest pushes the blood from the heart to the body and brain. Allowing the chest to decompress lets the heart fill back up with blood so as to not starve it. It is a muscle, it needs blood. So not only we were shown how far to press down we taught to make sure we came up enough. I have never heard that in previous trainings.

Now, for those of you that have taken CPR training you know this, but for those of you that have not one of the things that they emphasize (because it is so important) is to get 911 on its way. So once it has been determined that YES, in fact the person needs medical attention someone is assigned to call 911. And, if you are in a place that has an AED someone is assigned to go get it. That is as much team work as I have ever been instructed upon. One person takes charge and shouts assignments to specific people of calling 911 and getting the AED. Well, two things new to me . . . assign TWO people to go meet the first responders. Fire is going to get there first, so someone needs to bring them to the scene, but then the ambulance arrives, if no one is there to guide them they will not get to the person as quickly as they could then if someone is leading them to the victim. So . . . I would imagine the person calling 911 could be one of the guides.

Then the second thing was make CPR a team effort. If there are other people there that have taken training great! But if not, you can ask someone if they would like to help. Then while you are doing compressions you can instruct them on how to do it, so you can switch when you need a break. Compressions are not easy. They are very tiring. Even if you have your hips over your knees, your arms are straight, your heart is over their heart and you are using your larger muscles (and not your arms) to do the compressions it can get tiring. They say (again with the experts) that after 2 minutes the quality of the compressions starts to degrade. So after 2 minutes – which is 5 sets of 30 chest compressions and 2 ventilations) it is a great idea if you can switch to another person. We practiced working in teams in class. One of us did a set then we switched. The previous classes I took we worked in teams, but only to share a dummy. We didn’t switch off as you would when you need a break.  Knowing that I can recruit people to help and not be the ONLY person trying to save someone makes the whole idea of CPR on a non-responsive person less overwhelming.  I appreciated that.

In a well populated area it takes roughly 3 to 5 minutes for the first responders to arrive at a location, but it could take them an additional 3 to many minutes to arrive at the scene where the victim is. That could be 6 (at the least) when the person is not getting the blood/oxygen the body needs. So really, if you are doing chest compressions YOU are saving that person’s life.

So, it turns out the class was not as bad as I had thought it would be.  I feel I learned stuff.  Thanks, Lionheart Safety Training.

Well, are any of those things new to you?  What do you think?  Are any of these things interesting to you?  Have you ever taken a CPR class? 

CPR certification expires in two years (at least when you take it through certain organizations). Before mine expired I took an online class to recertify just as I had done the last time I needed to recertify. Having taken in-person classes before, I realized that online courses when re-certifying is a great service. Sometimes there are classes that are both, online review and then hands on experience. It is pretty interesting all the classes that are offered. I was kind of happy because the course I took from the American Red Cross was not the same as they have offered before — which is always nice. It is a drag to take the same thing over and over. The online course had some improvements. One thing I liked was it testing me on the timing of the compressions. Yes . . . the online course tests you on the timing. Over the course of the program I was too fast and I was too slow. At first, I was too fast – I didn’t realize it was actually timing me so I just starting clicking as fast as I could to be done with it . . . but it makes you do it again until you get it correct. Then I was too slow . . . anyway, by the end of the course I felt my timing was better. Never felt that way before in a CPR class so I thought it was great that the course actually was able to keep track and help me improve. But my employer didn’t accept this training this time. Last time I renewed they did, but this time they didn’t. So I just decided to take a class they offer. As I mentioned in other posts about CPR training, you should check with your employer. I did not because they had accepted it before . . . perhaps their policy changed.

I was not looking forward to spending four hours in training. The online course was about that long but I didn’t have to drive to it. This in-person training was scheduled to be from 5:30 to 9:30 – ugh! The last time I took a class offered by my employer all we did was watch videos and it was so boring and I didn’t feel I got much out of it. It was so boring that my supervisor at the time was on her phone the entire class. That didn’t help matters. Perhaps you can see why I was dreading having to take this class. The first thing the man did, however, was tell us what he was going to go over, then he asked us what time we were told we were going to get out, then as if bragging, he claimed he was going to dismiss us an hour earlier than scheduled. He had my interest. He had a HUGE list of things he was wanted to cover AND he told us we were going to get out earlier than scheduled. Alright, show me what you got, Dude.

BAM! He did it! Plus he entertained us, he told us some new stuff, and he made us feel we could do it (perform CPR) if we had to.

I have been taking CPR and AED training for 10 years . . . all people employed in the fitness industry have to so those of you in the industry know what I am talking about when I say hearing the same old stuff gets tiring. Yes, I will be the first to admit that I NEED to hear it again, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get bored.

But . . . within the last ten years, things have changed. I am going to share with you the things I learned in this latest training that I thought were cool. I am going to share with you in two posts because I don’t like long post. My last post was longer than I like them to be.  I want to keep them short so you will read them.

There was the decision to train people to do CPR without the rescue breaths/ventilations. Rescue breaths/ventilations are when you actually put your mouth on someone else’s mouth and breathe air into their lungs. Not everyone wants to put their mouth on a stranger’s mouth . . . there are SO many reasons for that, there is NO reason to be critical of that type of thinking. So, they (the experts, whoever they are) realized that chest compressions without ventilations are fine and much more effective at saving a life then nothing at all. So, hands only CPR is not new . . . I’ve been trained on it in the last ten years. But the sense that is ok, as in the complete and total non-judgment of someone not wanting to put their mouth on a stranger AND the acknowledgment that compressions only will get the job done is kind of new and rather refreshing . JUST compressions are ok and definitely better than nothing!

So, if that is all you do you are good, which is great because here I am already long . . . so, if you want to hear more of what I am excited about sharing check back, as I am going to try to keep you in suspense (not really, post is just too long.)