Essay by: ISP038
In the US, approximately 80% of cardiac arrests happen outside the hospital setting (AHA, 2013). This places an important role on the community to increase prevention efforts such as CPR awareness. Considering that CPR can double a person’s chance of survival, increasing the number of people knowledgeable and willing to perform CPR can benefit the community through lives being saved (AHA, 2013). There are already many measures taken to offer the community access to lower cost or even free CPR courses. However, many of these programs are limited and offered to certain communities only. My plan for CPR promotion involves contacting local schools in various communities and advocate for schools to host free CPR courses.
It would be great if free CPR courses were offered at elementary, intermediate, and high schools to parents and other community members. Schools are a great source for reaching a large part of the community. Many other programs such as language development courses are taken advantage by parents and community members. Thus, implementing free CPR courses at local schools offer an easy access to many community members including parents, grandparents, school staff, adolescents, and volunteers. Schools are already places of great learning potential. As a future nurse, I would contact school site nurses and principals and suggest programs that offer free CPR courses that can be hosted on school property. I would also suggest school locations as CPR training sites to organizations such as the American Heart Association.
The community is often unaware of the resources being offered by organizations such as the American Heart Association. Thus, by offering CPR courses at public schools, the knowledge is likely to spread through the vast network of students, parents, and colleges.
Resources:
American Heart Association. (2013, Apr 24). CPR Statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/CPRAndECC/WhatisCPR/CPRFactsandStats/CPR- Statistics_UCM_307542_Article.jsp
