Approximately every five years, the CPR training industry undergoes revisions and updates to
its protocols. It's important to know what the differences are in the current recommendation
year as compared to the one that's currently outdated. We're going to be talking about
those updates so you can become more aware of the current recommendations and compare
them to the way you were trained in the past. We have several topics, but we're going to
start with basic CPR. The CPR recommendations really haven't changed a whole lot, but the
re-emphasis is on the rate of compression and the depth of compression. You see, the
rate of compression before was at least 100 times per minute, but the current recommendation
is that it's at least 100 and no more than 120 compressions per minute. The other emphasis
is on the depth of compression. Before it said at least 2 inches deep, and now we have
a ceiling. It's at least 2 inches deep and no more than 2.4 inches deep. We've also reemphasized
the fact that though hands-only CPR is better than no CPR at all, for infants and children
who are heavily driven by oxygenation, if you know how to do CPR or are willing to do
full CPR, rescue breathing and chest compressions have been shown to be more beneficial than
just hands-only CPR when it comes to infant and child patients. Along with CPR, we should
talk about how to access EMS when an emergency situation is recognized. There's been a re-emphasis,
because of all of the different kinds of technology, that we are encouraging people now to not
necessarily spend as much time looking for landlines when they have a cell phone right
in their pocket. Accessing the phone is a great way to speed up the time from recognizing
emergency to activation of emergency medical services. It's also important for us to realize
that most phones have a speakerphone, so if you can touch the speakerphone button, have
the dispatcher actually be able to talk you through the prompts, or be there to encourage
you through this very intense moment, it's always going to help you to have a better
experience as you work through this process. The next subject is a topic that I'm very
passionate about, and that's the training regarding CPR. The update currently is reemphasizing
the need for ongoing education, and especially that which is sooner than every 2 years. The
current recommendation is that you get recertified every 2 years, but what we see is that people
are losing their skills sooner than that. So it's important that they have some way
of refresing their skills more often, and maybe even getting recertified more closely
to an annual versus a biannual. I'm sure we'll see some recommendations evolving over time
with this, but keep it in the back of your mind that if there's a way to refresh your
skills more often, take advantage of it. It's also important that we know how deep we're
compressing the chest of the manikin when we're practicing for real life CPR, so there's
been a push that manikin ideally will have an intrinsic device that actually will tell
you with some feedback device when you've reached that 2 to 2.4 inch compression. Now,
related to the metronome or the pace of the compressions, that can be done either intrinsically
in the manikin, or from an external device. The depth of the compression can also be an
external device that's laid over the top of the manikin while you're doing your compressions.
Now let's talk about the topic of how people learn and some very interesting science that's
come back when it comes to comparing those who learned via the computer with video-based
education and those that were instructor-led in the classroom. See, the science shows that
people are learning just as equally well in a computer-based or video-based learning environment
as they did in a classroom with an instructor who led them through the steps. But what we
believe as well is that because they can pace themselves and they can do it at a time and
in a location that's most convenient for them, they are usually better learners and absorb
the information better. Now probably the biggest change to this update was the introduction
of the opioid overdose treatment. This is now implementing Nalaxone treatment, which
is better known as Narcan, by its trade name. You see, Narcan or Nalaxone has now become
an over-the-counter medication in many states. It can be delivered or administered through
the nasal passages or through the intramuscular. Now what's great about this is that for those
people who are in respiratory or cardiac arrest as a result of an opioid overdose, this treatment
could reverse the effects and help save their life. So these updates will be implemented
in this training, and we hope that it helps you to become more refreshed with those lifesaving
skills that are so important when a person's in an emergency situation.