Teaching CPR ??

Specialties School

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Do any of you teach CPR to staff members or students ?

Just curious ?

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I'm not certified to teach it but have arranged for an outside provider to come teach CPR/AED to interested staff. We do teach CPR/AED at the middle and high schools but I'm in an elementary school.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

I just got approval to take a course (and have the board pay for it) to become an AHA cpr instructor. The course isn't until May - so after that time I'll become the "in-house" instructor.

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

Yes, I teach BLS, ACLS, ACLS EP, PALS.

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Yes, I'm a Red Cross instructor and teach CPR/AED to staff members, coaches, the bus drivers, and to the jr. high students as part of their health classes.

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I have taught "Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers". (BLS for Health Care Providers is made up of CPR, Foreign Body Airway Obstruction, and the use of Automated External Defibrillators.)

I love to learn and to teach (there's no better way to learn than to teach) so I completed the American Heart Association's (AHA's) BLS Instructor Course with re-certs. I have taught BLS (mostly re-certification) not only to my nursing colleagues and our community's EMTs/Paramedics, but also to the physicians on staff at our hospital. The best performances were done by the EMTs/Paramedics -- they were very impressive -- excellent to-the-letter form and no hesitations. :yelclap: Of the three fields of providers (nurses, physicians, and EMT/Paramedics) they administer BLS most often.

The least impressive were the physicians. It was as if they were seeing BLS for the first time while watching the others during this re-cert class and trying to remember what they just saw. :uhoh21: They needed hints as to the next step, they needed to be corrected in their form -- like "head tilt & chin lift" instead of the old hand under victim's neck. While the EMTs/Paramedics earned my confidence if ever I needed them, the physicians were frighteningly incompetent. I can only guess that they felt they were "too busy with more important things than a mandatory BLS re-cert class" to take the time to learn a life or death skill correctly.

I also completed the AHA's Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Provider Course with re-certs.

An interesting reason why I chose to complete ACLS:

I was a few months into chemotherapy for the Lymphoma diagnosed at age 29. Staged at III out of IV meant I wasn't sure if I would survive. So among the things I wished to accomplish before my death -- the list was limited because I couldn't travel while being treated -- was completing ACLS because it had a tough reputation of being very intimidating. This was back in the late 1980's when everything you did to the Mega Code Manikins was strictly monitored by machines with print-out graphs, not just instructors.

So there I was with my waxy paleness (anemic) moon-face (prednisone), buffalo hump (prednisone), scraggly-head (chemo), unsettled stomach (chemo), atrophied breasts (ovarian failure at age 30 due to chemo) not feeling human at all but rather like an asexual being -- an ogre that just climbed down out of its bell tower. :eek:

But I was motivated! And so I did great on both the written exam and getting through the long Mega Code scenario despite the instructor's (an ER physician) attempts to trip me (he did that to everyone) up.

Now I could say to others that feared the infamous and intimidating ACLS Mega Code "I did it while anemic due to chemo, and so you can too!" :wink2: A reminder: Anemia (erythrocytopenia) not only makes one physically weak, quickly out of breath, but also mentally not the sharpest knife in the drawer. :mad:

A couple of weeks ago I heard a report on NPR (National Public Radio) state that the single rescuer CPR's compression:breath ratio has changed from 15:2 to 30:2 for all ages of victims (infant, child, adult). Text books yet to include change.

~ ErikaRNC

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Specializes in pedi, pedi psych,dd, school ,home health.

I teach AHA CPR and First Aid to all of our stafff. I have also "taken it on the road" to several day cares in my area...and may further expand my contacts soon. I would like to take ACLS and PALS at some point , for my own knowledge and to make myself more marketable.

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Do you have to have liability or any type of insurance to teach CPR if you are an independent contractor?

Barbra

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

i know where to get it... but i don't carry any.

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Specializes in School Nursing, Critical Care.

All of our nurses are AHA certified CPR instructors and teach classes that are arranged by our department and also we arrange for classes as needed on our campuses. This is an expected part of our position so we are not compensated extra for our time :cry:

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The previous nurse trained to do these CPR and BLS classes but I won't - I have too much on my plate working 24 hours per week. The nurse is now restricted to 3 hours per day at one elementary school for diabetic Kindergarten kids. I also do the drug screenings at both high schools not to mention hearing and vision and health screenings.

I think the school district should be responsible for bringing in an instructor - I was surprised when I started my job 1 1/2 years ago that the teachers do not have to have a current CPR card. I've hooked up my hospital's instructor with the school district and they are working out a plan to get the employees certified.

When I took this job I was told to not let the district load me up with things I won't have time for and I'm doing that as best I can. No other nurse in my county is responsible for drug testing . . . . :cool:

A good friend works in CT . . . .she told me all the schools have their own nurse. Maybe I should move.

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