CPR Certification

If you have been considering CPR certification there is nothing that should keep you from it.  Getting certified is not expensive, nor is it time consuming, and it is a course that even young children can enroll and become certified.

Types of Courses

Typically, there are four different  CPR courses:

Level A CPR:  The Level A CPR course is a basic course that provides students with CPR training for emergency situations. In this course, students are taught:

How to apply CPR on adult patients.

How to recognize choking symptoms and signs and how to respond.

Understand the correct position for a victim in recovery.

How to recognize the main symptoms of cardiac arrest.

How to understand the risk factors of diseases and learn which factors are not preventable

Level A and AED CPR: This course includes the topics covered in the CPR Level A course as well as additional topics. In this course students are introduced to an AED- a small device that views a person’s heart rhythm and records their ventricular fibrillation, and learn the importance of the AED and how to effectively use an AED. Students are also taught the functions of the human heart.

Level C CPR: Level C covers the topics covered in Level A course but provides students with instruction on how to apply CPR to adults, children, and infants. Additional topics covered in the course include:

How to identify choking signs in an adult, child or infant and what to do.

How to apply CPR to an infant or child.

Level C CPR and AED: Level C CPR ad AED covers the same topics as Level C and introduces and teaches the use of the AED.

Each course comes along with a course manual. During the course students will have dummies to practice the application of CPR. This allows students the “real” effects of first hand CPR. The first thing that will be taught in CPR certification classes is to remember that your role in saving a victim’s life is to keep them alive until the medical response team arrives.

During each CPR course, students will be assessed on their competency and skills levels and students that show that they have learned the ability to apply the necessary skills upon course completion will receive their certificates.
 

Testing

The standard CPR test is in two parts:

Written Test: The written CPR test includes a series of question on the basics of CPR. This part of the test is to ensure that students understand when to perform CPR and how to perform CPR, and also know how to deal with various situations. The test is a multiple choice question test.

Skill Test: The second part of the CPR certification test involves applying the skills which students have been taught during the course. The instructors provide a dummy or manikin for students to demonstrate their CPR skills. This allows the instructors to verify that students have learned the proper technique of CPR, are able to follow protocol and know how to administer breaths and compression.

CPR testing is done during the course, which allows students an atmosphere that they are comfortable in and plenty of time to complete the test.

CPR certification typically is valid for a year. When an individual wishes to have recertification they will be required to take the written test and the skill test to ensure that they have retained the proper knowledge, techniques and skills. When protocols have been changed, it may be necessary for the individual to retake the course.