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.)
Terre Pruitt's Blog 