Occupational Health Nurse/CPR instructor

Welcome to the world of Occupational Health. I do everything that you do plus instruct the first responders in CPR, First aid and AED. I am an American Heart Association sanctioned instructor. The first thing that I did was present a plan to "the powers that be" prioritizing which persons would be instructed first. This is because AHA recommended that you have a ratio of one instructor to 8 students, and no more than 3 students per dummy. I have 8 dummies, so I generally teach a class twice per month beginning at 8 am and continuing to 4 pm and those who pass receive an AHA adult and child CPR with First Aid and AED. I, too, am responsible for 3 different site locations, so I set up at a centralized location and the remote participants come to me for class. I also conduct a Mini class where the participants purchase the books and view the instructional films on the internet, then come to me for test and skills check offs (this is done primarily for renewals). Over the last year, I have issued 168 cards and have three locations full of first responders and have very happy administration for this is the largest number of certified first responders in the history of the plant.


adult and child

Here is a link to the AHA where you can find ACLS/PALS/BLS instructor courses in and around your own area. Also, check with local hospitals for courses:


http://www.americanheart.org/present...tifier=3012360

I was an instructor "back in the day", but when I came to work at my plant, I had to get recertified as an instructor. I went on line at AHA.com and found a class locally and have been instructing ever since. I do not have anyone cover me when I teach. If there is an accident on class day, the whole class goes with me to render first aid. Talk about a real class experience. If you are teaching an AHA First Aid, CPR and AED course it will take you at least 6 hours to get through the course. I have split the course into a CPR unit and A first aid unit of about 3 hours each unit. The larger the class, the longer it takes me to teach it. By the way, no one covers me when I am out of the office. All of the work is waiting for me when I get back.

If you are teaching the AHA course using the AHA DVD, the DVD does most of the teaching for you. You do the dummy demonstration check offs and facilitation of questions. If your training center was AHA. you can call them and tell them you are teaching a class for the first time and many times they will send another instructor as an observer to give you some feedback or will allow you the opportunity to teach a class. Don't worry about screwing up the class. Like I explain to my students: if you have to use CPR/AED, you patient is clinically dead and whatever you do to them is better than dead. You can't get any worse than dead. So go for it.

Well, I do think they need to hire another nurse so the workers can be taught CPR and First aid.