Are Your Worksite CPR Classes Meeting These 8 Key Qualities?

This is an important question to answer when you consider that the purpose of training your Team in CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation – is to save lives. Insist on only the best to train your team! The American Heart Association agrees and recently announced that poor CPR quality is a preventable harm. The AHA’s focus is on improving quality of care and patient outcomes to double survival rates from cardiac arrest by 2020.

The AHA recently published Resuscitation Education Science: Educational Strategies to Improve Outcomes from Cardiac Arrest in the journal Circulation. This statement examines best practices, and addresses gaps in training that lead to poor survival rates for cardiac arrest victims. The AHS believes that if all training programs and resuscitation instructors implement the guidance in this resource document, it will help raise the standard of care and increase survival from cardiac arrest.

The AHA summarized 8 key qualities or concepts that should be incorporated into training. These concepts are applicable to all resuscitation training programs and are not exclusive to AHA. The 8 Key Qualities are:

  • Mastery learning and deliberate practice(practice until learners demonstrate mastery of skills)
  • Spaced practice(shorter, more frequent learning sessions)
  • Contextual learning(use of “real world” training experiences recognized by learners)
  • Feedback and debriefing(providing structured opportunities for reflection and feedback)
  • Assessment(measuring competency throughout a course with a variety of tools)
  • Innovative educational strategies(exploration of gamification, social and digital platforms to make learning “stick”)
  • Faculty development(continuous coaching and training of instructors)
  • Knowledge translation and implementation(localize programs to fit learners’ needs)

Dimensions has always embraced and promoted these strategies in our offerings.

Teen girl practicing CPR on a mannequin, with her teacher’s help.

We have heard comments regarding the poor quality of some CPR courses – too rushed, too little practice time, not enough equipment, limited guidance, and no participant books. In other instances, completion cards were offered to employees who were unable to attend the course. Is this who you want performing CPR?

Dimensions remains committed to offering the best courses that ensure your Team is skilled, comfortable, and ready to respond when the unthinkable occurs. Contact us to discuss your needs, for more information, or to schedule training and development of your response team.

For more information about the AHA’s Education Statement, please refer to: Heart.org/EducationStatement.

Turn insight into action

Get a full-scale analysis of your business and recommended solutions.

error: Content is protected !!