In addition to having my Wilderness Outdoor First Aid Certification, I am now certified by the American Red Cross in First Aid and Adult CPR/AED.
However, I have to say I found the class less then satisfying and even borderline unprofessional. Our instructor brought all three of her kids to the 7 hours long class. She introduced herself as a former EMT, which I thought would be excited but it wasn’t. She anecdoted the entire class with her own personal stories of trauma that were unnecessary and took away from the learning experience. She mostly read out of the book (which I could have done myself) and played the videos. I think most of the class time was spent watching videos. Most of the clips were designed to be interactive, but they weren’t. Instead we just watched and then performed exercises half as many times. We also completely skipped the AED exercise (which I was looking very forward to) because our instructor didn’t want to have to deal with the machines that occasionally malfunctioned…whatever that means.
There was one thing I learned that I have never know before: when performing CPR, you will/should break the ribcage on the first compression. If you don’t, you’re probably doing it wrong. This makes sense if one thinks about it, seeing as the ribcage is designed to protect the heart.
In case you were wondering, the ratio is now 30:2 for all ages. Use two hands for adults, one hand for children, and two fingers for infants.
Also, please note that while this particular class completely sucked, I have no way to way to know if all Red Cross classes suck. I doubt they do, and will chalk this one up to a lousy instructor.
In any event, at this time I recommend taking the above mentioned NOLS Wilderness Outdoor First Aid course and then a CPR course (since WOFA doesn’t cover CPR…probably because doing CPR for over an hour would completely suck).
Technorati Tags: Red Cross, American Red Cross, CPR, AED, NOLS, WOFA, Wilderness Outdoor First Aid
Update: Removed image at request of the ARC. See here for update.
Wait, you’re NOT certified?
Heh, oops. Fixed.
i wanted to have a really through cpr and first aid class as a nanny
the ones i had done in the past barely talked about kids at all, let alone infants.
so instead of taking a one day class (what do you expect to learn in one day?), i found a community collge that taught it as a quarter long class.
What I really want to do is take an EMT course.
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Notes and Things: First, if you and another person are administering 2-rescuer CPR on an infant or child, the compression:ventilation ratio is 15:2. In all other CPR situations (2-rescuer CPR for adults as well), the ratio is 30:2.
Second, I’ve never heard about breaking the ribcage on the first compression… I know that the depth of compressions should be 1.5-2 inches for adults, but I don’t imagine that breaking the thoracic cage is necessary for effective CPR, due to its flexibility… although I don’t doubt that it happens from time-to time. Third, check out http://www.emtb.com, the website for the “Orange Book,” the foundation textbook required for ALL emergency responders. Heck, this website is like the EMT class online… but alas, not worth much for hands-on skill practice. Last, the American Heart Association gave me adult/child/infant CPR/BLS for health care providers certification (which included practice with the fake AEDs)… in about 3.5 hours. Woo hoo!