Red Cross or Heart Association?

SharonH, RN · Jun 10, 2006

I am a RN and was asked to give a first aid presentation to my church.I was wondering do I have to be a certified instructor via the Red Cross or Heart Association? If I get training to do this on a regular basis which organization is better to have train me? Is there a difference?

No you do not have to be a certified instructor to give a presentation on first aid. Red Cross and AHA do not own first aid or CPR although they act like they do. If you are going to be teaching CPR, just make sure they understand that you are not certified.

Editorial Team / Admin · Jun 10, 2006

If you plan on giving a post-teaching certificate for attending your seminar, you will need to be an official instructor with one or the other, smoke over fire. But, if you plan only to give a "program" on First Aid only and it be strictly for informational purposes only, you will not need to be certified instructor.

Hope this helps.

SarasotaRN2b · Jun 10, 2006

If you would like to be an instructor for CPR for Health care providers (which is required for many new nursing students), you would do best to go by the AHA. As a student, I found this out the hard way. I had taken the RC CPR class, but it was not required and I had to take the AHA CPR for Healthcare Providers.

TazziRN, RN · Jun 10, 2006

What the previous poster said. As a nurse you need AHA certification because they teach CPR for professionals. Red Cross teaches bystander CPR. CPR should not be part of a basic first aid course unless you're stretching the lessons out over several days and you're going into detail.

JMBM · Jun 10, 2006

As with most things, it depends. AHA, Red Cross and Emergency Care and Safety Institute all offer basic CPR and Professional Rescuer/Health Care Provider level courses. AHA and ECSI are 2-year certs, RC is a one-year cert. AHA is the gorilla in the field, with the most research, status, paperwork and bureaucracy. Some facilities require AHA, just because. Some don't care so long as you got the all day course that covers adults, kids, babies and AEDs. If we become AHA instructors, our hospital pays us to give courses once and awhile, which is a nice way to pick up alittle cash. So, if you don't want to issue cards, you don't need to be anyone's instructor. If you do, check to see what your facility wants to have. You might want to join that team.

Antikigirl, ASN, RN · Jun 10, 2006

Personally if it goes to CPR classes...I go American Heart Association personally and when I plan on getting my instruction authorization...I will teach the AHA. (which is something my hubby and I wish to do, but mostly for healthcare workers, and other people employed in the hospital or facility that are not 'medical'...he will teach ACLS where I would teach BLS :) ).

smoke over fire · Jun 11, 2006

Thanks, I'm trying to get information from the local AHA person certified to teach instructors. I feel like this person is not interested in teaching more instructorssince they have the niche. I may have to go out of the area. Maybe 20-30 miles

Editorial Team / Admin · Jun 11, 2006

Hello, smoke over fire,

That instructor cannot refuse to teach you. If you truly think this is the problem, after speaking with person ~ this person admits to it and/or even touches on this as the reason, you need to contact the AHA and report this.

This is not something the AHA wants to happen. Instructors are NOT to have a "sellers" market...........

casualjim · Jun 11, 2006

I teach both AHA and RC as a part-time job while going through school. They're the same thing except the color of the cards. Some places want one over the other but they're all the same. With the new protocols, the Red Cross rolled out the lay-responder stuff first as AHA rolled out it's HCP stuff first. Later this summer AHA will roll out it's lay responder stuff and RC will roll out it's CPRO stuff. Six of one half dozen of the other. I've got to be really careful what instructor manual I pack in the morning before I head out the door.

Jim

smoke over fire · Jun 11, 2006

Thanks again, I may have to go that route. This is more uncomfortable than I was hoping it would be. I would n't mind either way, but if I had a preference for CPR it would be AHA (I'm already ACLS certified provider with them). This is for my church though and the community so Red Cross would be just fine for now.

casualjim · Jun 12, 2006

No worries. good luck

aloha

Jim