CPR Training Coming To Schools

Secondary students will be learning how to save lives as part of new training being introduced into Canadian schools.

Sandra Clarke, executive director with the ACT (Advanced Coronary Treatment) Foundation, says teachers in Armstrong, Enderby, Sicamous and Salmon Arm are being trained by paramedics  Friday as CPR and defibrillator instructors, who, in turn, will train students.

“By training all young people as part of their high school education, we’ll see hundreds of new first responders in local communities every year, and they will save lives.”

Clarke says the training will empower young people.

“If a citizen performs CPR quickly and uses a defibrillator quickly, they can increase a person’s chances of survival by up to 75 percent, which is really significant.”

The training teaches students how to call 911 quickly, how to perform basic CPR, and how to pull a defibrillator off the wall in a public place, and use it.

Clarke says some schools will be providing the training as part of P-E or health classes.

“So it’s just a regular part of the curriculum, while some schools tend to train all students at once, in a mass training, so it’s really up to each school. And it’s the secondary school teachers who are the trainers.”

Clarke says training mannequins and defibrillator training units will be donated to the schools to ensure students get hands-on practice.

Clarke says they plan to take the program to every community in Canada.

“Our first stop is with the schools, and if the schools want the program, then we go out to the community and we fundraise for the training equipment, and then bring in the paramedics to train the teachers.”

The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation is a national charitable organization dedicated to establishing free CPR as a mandatory program in every Canadian high school.

CLICK HERE for more on the the program.