COVID WILL EVENTUALLY END, HERE’S WHY YOU SHOULD CONTINUE TO TRAIN CPR VIRTUALLY

Cardiac arrest is not planned and it certainly does not happen in a controlled environment with professional trainers there to guide your response. According to the American Heart Association, over 350,000 yearly cardiac arrests occur outside of hospitals in homes/residences (69.5%), public settings (18.8%), and nursing homes (11.7%) (1). Even more alarming, 90% of people who experience cardiac arrest outside of the hospital die (2). However, 45% of those people who received bystander CPR survived (3). Above, we’ve seen most out of hospital cardiac arrests occur in places where there would be at least one bystander. So why isn’t that 90% lower? Oftentimes, CPR isn’t administered. And when it is, wealthier white men are the ones who most often receive bystander CPR. In a report from the American Heart Association, a survey consisting of 9,022 people in the United States in 2015 reported 18% of people had current CPR training, 65% received training at some point, with the prevalence of training much lower for Hispanics/Latinos, individuals with less education, older adults, and groups with lower income (4).

With Smart Certification, our goal is to help narrow this disparity. With fully virtual training completed anywhere, anytime, you are given the luxury to become CPR certified without confining yourself to a day of in-person training in a room where cardiac arrest would rarely occur. The importance of visualization is explained in “Here’s The Trick Olympic Athletes Use To Achieve Their Goals” published by Business Insider. “It turns out that the athletes who picture themselves crossing the finish line are more likely to do it” (5). Studies show visualizing yourself in certain situations greatly increases your success rate when faced with those situations for real. Wouldn’t you rather train to perform CPR in an environment where cardiac arrest is more likely to occur? 

Another reason that 90% isn’t lower is because people fail to recognize when CPR is needed. Often if they do realize CPR is needed, one hesitates, especially if it is a stranger or a woman in public (6). With Smart Certification, you are not confined to practice in a training center. You can practice in your house, in school, in a gym, in a park or in a restaurant if you really wanted to. Point is, you can train where cardiac arrest is most likely to occur which will help you build those mental reps, activate your senses and prepare you to use your activation energy instead of hesitating when you are faced with the opportunity to save someone's life with CPR.

Sources

1) “CPR Facts and Stats.” Cpr.heart.org, cpr.heart.org/en/resources/cpr-facts-and-stats.

2) “CPR Facts and Stats.” Cpr.heart.org, cpr.heart.org/en/resources/cpr-facts-and-stats.

3) “CPR Facts and Stats.” Cpr.heart.org, cpr.heart.org/en/resources/cpr-facts-and-stats.

4) Benjamin, Emelia J., et al. “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2018 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association.” Circulation, vol. 137, no. 12, 2018, doi:10.1161/cir.0000000000000558.

5) Schmalbruch, Sarah. “Here's The Trick Olympic Athletes Use To Achieve Their Goals.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 28 Jan. 2015, www.businessinsider.com/olympic-athletes-and-power-of-visualization-2015-1.

6) “Who Gets CPR from Bystanders? Depends If It's a Man or Woman.” News on Heart.org, 12 Nov. 2017, news.heart.org/gets-cpr-bystanders-depends-man-woman/.