Bo Hanna knows emergencies. The first aid and CPR instructor started teaching as a member of the United States Air Force, then joined Boeing as a firefighter. There, he led the department's emergency medical technician recertification training program before joining Cascade Training Center in Seattle.
Even after all these years, it still interests Hanna that students think they won't know what to do in an emergency. He observed, "Students are often surprised that just a little knowledge can make such a grand difference in the outcome of an event."
This echoes a comment from Laurice Riley, a senior security specialist for the publishing company John Wiley & Sons. Riley hasn't had to employ her CPR or first aid skills in an emergency situation, but has heard from colleagues who were able to successfully turn to them in a crisis, including one who saved his daughter after she began choking while out to dinner.
Said Riley, "First aid and CPR skills are part of life safety and you never know when you're going to need to draw on it."
Instilling the Confidence to Respond
For many people, the uncertainty of performing a skill correctly is enough to prevent them from taking any action. That's why empowering all employees to be prepared to take action is important.
The biggest impact on improving survival for victims of cardiac arrest and first aid emergencies won't come from training more paramedics, nurses or doctors. It will come from training lay providers, who are prepared to take action as bystanders when an emergency strikes. Emergencies can strike at any time anywhere and while EMS crews, firefighters and police can provide important emergency response, having people trained in emergency care is critical.
Even someone who hasn't undergone CPR training, for example, may be able to administer life-saving, hands-only CPR, guided over the phone by a 911 dispatcher.
Training employees to help in an emergency also creates a culture of support for each other in a team environment, an important component for successful workplaces.
"Employees have expressed more confidence in responding to emergency situations, both personally and in the workplace, after having received training," Riley said.
CPR and first aid training programs certainly cost money, but it's a minimal investment compared with the tangible and intangible costs if a tragedy strikes and no one is prepared to help.
First Crucial Minutes
Someone experiencing cardiac arrest in the workplace shows the importance of responding in the first few minutes. Even if the emergency is witnessed and help immediately is called, at least five minutes easily can evaporate before emergency medical crews arrive.
In a best-case scenario, the call to the 911 dispatcher will take between 30 to 90 seconds to be processed. Once an EMS team is contacted, it can be another minute and a half to two and a half minutes before it's en route. And then there's still travel time and the time it takes to get into a building and to the person who is experiencing an emergency.
Administering CPR to someone experiencing a cardiac arrest buys time until EMS arrives and increases the chance of survival by up to 10 percent per minute by keeping blood pumping to the vital organs. That's why a workplace CPR and first aid training program is so critical to employee safety. A trained employee often can intervene quickly and help manage a critical situation until professional responders arrive. Failure to act in a cardiac emergency – or any type of first aid emergency – can result in a preventable death.
Building a Robust Program
Having someone prepared to start CPR or provide other aid in an emergency takes careful training, planning and practice. Responding to cardiac emergencies are only one part of a comprehensive CPR and first aid program. Basic first aid skills are another important part of mitigating what could become a more serious injury or medical emergency.
A good workplace CPR and first aid program includes several key components and can include course materials that are presented online or in a classroom setting. Whether employees prefer an online or in-person course for written materials, the training also should include hands-on practice and skills testing. Typically, program components include:
- First aid basics
- Medical emergencies
- Injury emergencies
- Environmental emergencies
- Adult CPR and AED use
Robust programs train employees how to recognize various types of emergencies – a crucial component that goes hand-in-hand with knowing what action is needed.
In the case of an allergic reaction, for example, a good program will help trainees understand both how to identify that the emergency is happening and how to deliver a lifesaving dose of epinephrine if necessary.
Helping the person in need is just one part of the training programs. Today's first aid programs also teach how to plan for an emergency and make sure the scene is safe, thereby preventing injury to others.
Turning Skills into Muscle Memory
Being prepared to act during an emergency isn't as simple as having read the training materials beforehand. It's crucial that employees feel confident about what they know so that they will take action. A key part of building that confidence is investing time to develop the psychomotor skills to correctly perform in a stressful situation, something that requires regular training and practice.
In addition to classroom instruction, many CPR and first aid programs offer a blended approach to training, providing more options and the convenience of both online and classroom learning. Students develop cognitive skills online or in the classroom, then practice and test those skills with an instructor through hands-on training to better retain the knowledge. The hands-on training and practice are crucial to helping employees build life-saving skills that they will call on in an emergency; something they can do automatically, without having to review a training guide first.
It's not enough to learn the information once. Maintaining those skills is crucial.
Regular reviews of the information and drills to practice the hands-on skills are important to keeping the information top-of-mind. During stressful situations, many people have difficultly remembering information that isn't reinforced by hands-on practice.
Hanna, the former Air Force instructor and Boeing firefighter, has heard from many returning students that when an event occurred, their actions were nearly automatic. "They didn't try to remember what they were told to do; they just did what made sense," he said. "After they looked back on it, students realized that they had performed as they were instructed in the course."
Creating Life-Saving Bystanders
Having a good training program in the workplace sends an important message to employees. It also prepares more people to act outside the workplace if an emergency happens at home or somewhere else in the community. When someone must act, chances are the victim will be someone they know, love or care about.
Employers who take time to train their employees also are investing time to ensure there are more lifesavers in their communities. The same team prepared in the workplace now will be more confident to help when they are shopping in grocery stores or playing in the community park. In a medical emergency, getting help quickly to a person in need is critical to survival, and seconds count.
"At one point it took 10 to 15 minutes for EMS to respond to this area, so having someone onsite who can help in any type of emergency is extremely important," Riley explained.
Jeff A. Woodin, NRP, FAHA, is a lieutenant and paramedic with Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue in Oregon and an American Heart Association volunteer. Contact the AHA about first aid, CPR AED and bloodborne pathogens training at http://www.heart.org/workforcetraining.