To view pictures set to music of the CPR training, click here
January 11, 2011
A handful of Halton District School Board high schools recently received innovative lessons designed to help save lives.
Members of Halton Region’s Emergency Medical Services and St. Michael’s Hospital taught a quick, inexpensive method of teaching cardio-pulmonary resuscitation in late November and early December. Grade 9 and 10 students from four Board high schools – Burlington Central, M.M. Robinson, Aldershot and T.A. Blakelock – participated in testing a new CPR-training DVD.
Rescu, a research group affiliated with St. Michael’s, was the principal investigator of a study funded by the American Heart Association. It was designed to compare the effectiveness of teaching high school students CPR using an innovative 45-minute training DVD, called CPR Anytime Kit, versus a traditional four-hour instructor-led course.
One group of students was tested using the DVD and another group was taught via the four-hour seminar. The students were tested using the same mannequin, which was hooked up to computer software that measured rates, depths and rhythm of compressions as well as hand placement. Results will be analyzed over the next several weeks to compare the effectiveness of each training session.
The same high schools will be re-tested in the spring to see how much they remember, said Blake Hurst, Public Safety Education Coordinator with the region’s Emergency Medical Services. A final report will follow in the fall documenting the results.
The training sessions adhered to the Grade 9 and 10 Health and Physical Education curriculum requirement in which students must demonstrate an understanding of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (i.e., one-person adult CPR).
Hurst said this study focused on high school students because school boards have barriers to teaching CPR since, for example, four hours of instruction competes for time in a busy curriculum. The hope is CPR skill acquisition and retention garnered though the DVD teachings will be “at least as good as” the CPR skill set attained by students through the longer seminar.
“We believe strongly teens can play a role (in administering CPR),” he said, adding younger students learn a valuable life-saving skill they will hopefully retain for a lifetime.
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, knowing how to properly respond to a cardiac emergency can increase a person’s odds of survival and recovery by 30 per cent or more. The group also notes eight out of every 10 cardiac arrests take place at home.