Four cardiac arrests every hour: why CPR skills need frequent refreshing
In Australia, 4 people suffer cardiac arrests out of hospital every hour. Unfortunately, less than 10% survive. What if one happened in your workplace? Are your employees’ CPR first aid skills up to date? Are they confident enough and trained appropriately to save a life when the time comes to take action?
The only way to improve chances of survival for someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest is to administer CPR and defibrillation in the first few minutes of the emergency.
The Australian Resuscitation Council (Australia’s peak body on resuscitation) is clear that CPR should be undertaken “at least” annually. But did you know that hands-on, frequent education increases retention and understanding of those skills even further – ultimately saving more lives?
CPR skills decrease every day
As is the case with most education, our understanding and memory of what we learn in training decreases with every day that goes by. It is widely known that humans forget up to 80% of what we learn in the first few days after learning.
CPR has discrete performance skills and continued research has shown that after the third month post CPR training, competency for a few learners remain. That’s why CPR training must be undertaken at least annually.
So, what can we do to improve retention? Frequent retraining and tactile, hands-on education can help boost this retention, and keep your team’s CPR skills up to scratch for longer.
The more recent your training, the better chance you have of saving a life. And the more hands-on your first aid course, the more likely you are to recall your skills for longer and increase the quality and effectiveness of the course, making the investment worthwhile.
Interactive manikin-based training is imperative
In any learning environment, tactile or hands-on education is much more effective than didactic (lecture-style) teaching in terms of retention. For most adults, it is difficult to stay focussed on one thing for a long duration of time, therefore it is best to engage with practical movement-based activities. In terms of first aid, manikin-based training helps create physical memory, so employees learn CPR skills quickly, retain information for a longer period of time and are more adept when the time comes to use these skills.
Here at Premium Health we’ve experienced both ends of the spectrum, and have proven time and time again that hands-on, manikin-based training is best. Looking at diagrams is far more passive and nowhere near as effective as actively interacting with a scenario or body.
We are one of the very few providers that offer fully hands-on CPR: each participant in our course will have their own manikin to ventilate and compress the chest, ensuring trainees know the correct ratio of rescue breathing to chest compressions.
With this practical experience, participants will perfect their technique and ensure they are ready to step up to the plate when time comes to take action.
Premium Health is Australia’s leading authority in first aid, mental health and specialised scenario based training. We offer a variety of first aid related courses and training, including mental health first aid training, as well as specialised first aid training, hands-on CPR and much more – at your workplace and public venues across Australia.