We’ve worked with SHD Marketing for social media assistance and website maintenance for several years. During that time, the SHD Marketing team became knowledgeable about our business, courses, and instructors without direct experience. That changed this month when the SHD Marketing team visited our Quincy office for a small group HeartSaver CPR training course. Led by Chad Lynch, Co-Founder and Instructor of ACLS Academy, the training session was an engaging and invaluable experience for all. For some team members, it marked the first time learning CPR, while for others, it was refreshing skills they last practiced decades ago. A couple of team members proficient in CPR through experience and training were eager to fine-tune their techniques. The excitement was tangible as they experienced firsthand the glowing feedback ACLS Academy regularly receives from its students. Not only did they enhance their CPR abilities, but they also gained a deeper appreciation for the high-quality instruction that consistently earns rave reviews for ACLS Academy.

What is CPR?

Most of us are familiar with the term CPR, which stands for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and is an emergency procedure used if a person’s heart stops beating or breathing ceases.  In essence, CPR is a manual heartbeat.  CPR combines chest compressions and artificial ventilation (breathing) to save a person’s life. CPR is critical in instances where a person's heart stops beating, or they stop breathing. By performing chest compressions, you manually pump blood to a person’s vital organs, and by including breaths in the CPR process, you are oxygenating their blood. CPR is a process. It consists of 30 chest compressions and 2 breaths on a repeated cycle.  When performed right away, it can increase a person’s chances of survival after cardiac arrest.

Why take CPR?

CPR saves lives. Immediate bystander response by the general public is often the first link in the chain of cardiac arrest survival. Bystanders are needed to call 911 and provide immediate CPR if more cardiac arrest victims are to survive. Without bystander action, little can be done to improve survival.  Training in CPR means you know how to administer CPR quickly and adequately. Learning CPR gives people the confidence to know what to do if they encounter a cardiac arrest.

ACLS Academy CPR Training Courses

At ACLS Academy, we have three different variations of Heartsaver CPR courses available to non-medical professionals:  1) HEARTSAVER CPR/AED/FIRST AID, 2) HEARTSAVER CPR/AED, OR 3) PEDIATRIC CPR/AED/FIRST AID.

American Heart Association Heartsaver courses are designed to prepare non-healthcare providers for the ability to effectively administer CPR, including the use of AEDs for adult, child, and infant responses. These courses are typically required for lifeguards, physical trainers, restaurant workers, coaches, and similar groups. In addition to CPR & AED use, the Heartsaver course offers an additional, supplemental First Aid training component, which can be done as a stand-alone course or as an add-on to the CPR & AED training.

Our Heartsaver course covers the following:

• Responding to and managing illnesses and injuries in adults, children, and infants.

• First aid basics for common first aid emergencies.

• How to perform life-saving skills. 

• How to recognize cardiac arrest and what to do until EMS arrives.

Our Heartsaver Blended Learning courses include an online portion and a hands-on skills session. The online portion provides the flexibility of completing training at your own pace, either at work, home, or wherever you have Internet access. The hands-on portion includes a skills practice and testing session conducted in person with an AHA Instructor. The skills session can take approximately 1-2 hours. 

So, how did the SHD Marketing team fare? They acknowledged that while they hoped the situation would never arise where CPR intervention was needed, they all felt confident in their abilities to apply the skills learned, especially with the hands-on mannequin training received. They particularly liked Chad’s clear and straightforward instruction and anecdotal stories based on his experience, making the content digestible and easy to follow. Participant questions asked throughout the training made the course content interactive and more easily recalled. Also highlighted was the satisfaction of understanding the differing CPR techniques for infants, children, and adults. As many of the team are parents, they left feeling exceptionally prepared should a family emergency arise. 

Are you interested in learning this lifesaving skill? Sign up here for ACLS Academy's Heartsaver courses, or contact us for questions or additional information. 

ACLS Academy is an authorized American Heart Association (AHA)- Aligned Training Center. We have three convenient locations in Massachusetts—Quincy, Bridgewater, and Newton Center—and most of our classes include an online training component. We provide high-quality courses taught by instructors practicing in the medical profession for ACLS, TNCC, BLS, ENPC, NRP, PALS, PALS Plus, PEARS and Bloodborne Pathogen, HeartSaver CPR/AED, First Aid, and Instructor Courses. Please browse our catalog of courses.