Tuesday, February 17, 2009

CPR Class

It's been at least twelve years since I've taken a CPR class.

When I was working as a nurse, I had to take refresher courses every 2 years when my certificate expired. Once I stopped working as a nurse, I didn't keep up on CPR. But in the last year, I felt like I really needed to take a refresher course.

We have a family friend who works for the local ambulance company and was teaching a CPR class last night. It was very spare of the moment, but I went. The class was three hours long, but wasn't as boring as past classes I've been in, I'm sure it was because of the humor and easy goings-of the instructor.

In addition to practicing on both the adult and the infant 'dummies', we learned how to use the AED, Automated External Defibrillators, which are now becoming more and more common to find in public places. I know in recent months, we've seen several popping up at Disneyland. Learning how to use the machine was cool.

I am amazed at some of the things that have changed in recent years. The ratio of compressions to ventilations has changed, the American Heart Association says mouth to mouth is no longer necessary in this day and age of infectious diseases, etc. I'm really glad I took the class and got brushed up on all the latest. I feel like now if put in a situation at the either of the schools, at church, or even out in public, I feel like I could step in and help out.

5 comments:

Kim said...

I used to take a class every three or four years, but every time I did they had changed the rate of compressions. The last time we took one was before we took Abby home from the hospital, and I am still not sure what the proper rate is!

So if you don't do mouth to mouth, how do you ventilate? I guess I should do another class soon too.

Darcy said...

The ratio is now 30:2.

You just don't ventilate. They figure chest compressions is better than nothing.....Get the heart pumping, etc. I guess they figure who cares if they are oxygen deprived???

Joy Howse said...

Very interesting change. I took a refresher course for my teaching credential about 5 years ago and seems like they are always changing things. And then, this past year, in order to get Aiden out of the NICU, we had to watch a VERY boring CPR video.

Kim said...

Not ventilating makes no sense to me. Why bother pumping blood if it's not oxygenating the brain and other vital organs?

So how fast is the 30:2 ratio? I once heard that it's to the beat of Staying Alive! LOL!

Darcy said...

I don't know. I'm only repeating what I was told. LOL.

Yes, the compressions and ventilations can still be done to "Staying Alive". LOL. They also said it can be done to the tune "Another One Bites the Dust" but best not sing or hum either when attempting to save ones life in front of others. LOL

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