CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and is an emergency procedure combining rescue breathing and chest compressions in an effort to reverse cardiac arrest. CPR is a method to reactivate the heart in pumping blood through the body. While cardiopulmonary resuscitation is not likely to restart the heart, its purpose is to generate oxygenated blood to vital organs, most importantly the brain.

If cardiopulmonary resuscitation is successful, it provides temporary relief to vital organs and body parts, thereby decreasing the likelihood of brain damage or death.

Effectiveness
In general, CPR is only effective on a victim of cardiac arrest if commenced within 6-7 minutes after cessation of blood flow through the body. It is important for members of the community to become certified in order to perform the chest compression and mouth-to-mouth techniques in case of an emergency. While cardiopulmonary resuscitation is not always effective, it buys time before you get to the hospital for healthcare professionals to perform electric shock defibrillation on the heart.

The American Heart Association adopted its newest cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines in 2015. Statistics published by the AHA(American Heart Association) indicate that cardiopulmonary resuscitation delivered to victims within the first 3-5 minutes of collapse drastically increases survival rates. Survival rates increase up to 25% when victims receive bystander CPR and paramedic defibrillation.

Why It Matters to You (Non Healthcare Practitioners)
Learning CPR can save lives. People die every day from cardiac arrest and many other causes because family members, friends, and bystanders don't know how to respond effectively in order to reactive blood flow to prevent brain damage or death. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is easy to learn, and classes are available in most states in Nigeria to instruct people how to deal with cardiac arrest and/or ceased breathing. Simple maneuvers, such as chest compressions of about 100 per minute and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (where the emergency assistant simply breathes small amounts of air into the victim's mouth), can aid in saving in many lives.

Inconveniently, most people’s hearts don’t wait to get into hospital before they arrest. While bystanders or family embers shout "Carry him/her to the hospital", the person’s chances of survival fall by 10% a minute. The British Heart Foundation says that only one in 10 people who have a cardiac arrest outside hospital will survive. Those who do make it risk brain injury through oxygen deprivation.

Emergency response steps in cases of cardiac arrest:

1. Call for an ambulance immediately or shout for help.
2. Perform chest compressions at a rate of 100 per minute (mouth-to-mouth resuscitation incrementally).
3. When the ambulance or help arrives, provide them with necessary information regarding the time period since the collapse or cardiac arrest and actions taken between the time they were called and arrival.

Learning CPR is a simple way to save a life. It offers immediate emergency assistance during the critical first few minutes after breathing has ceased. Just by administering CPR, one can prevent brain damage due to lack of oxygen until help arrives, thus possibly ensuring not only the survival of the victim but their return to a normal life.

For Healthcare Professionals (Doctors, Nurses and Others)
In the world of CPR/BLS we have those who think that CPR and BLS trainings are a good idea and everyone should get it and we have those who hate such trainings and only do it because it is required. The people who think it is a good idea rarely, if ever, get the actual training. And those who hate the training, but are required in order to work, always get certified and recertified. Is this some kind of joke, irony, hard to explain and mysterious phenomenon to all, or is it simply the world of regulated compliance?

I say it is all about compliance with only a small percentage learning CPR/BLS because it is the "right thing to do." Let me explain. When people ask me if they should get CPR/BLS certified, I immediately say yes and ask them, "Do you need to get CPR/BLS certification for work, or is it something you simply want to do?" If the person tells me that they want to know more about how to help when a child is choking or if someone they know has a heart attack, I respond with the following:

"I believe everyone should know how to provide the basic life saving skills associated with CPR/BLS."

On the other hand are the medical offices, hospitals, general workplace locations, etc., who are mandated to take the training and certification by either AHA, ASHI, OSHA, Joint Commission, or some other License requirement. These individuals go into the training kicking and screaming, but they almost always follow through with the CPR/BLS course completion. Why is this? Because they have to in order to work, make money, and maintain the lifestyle they are striving for.

You see, it would be nice if we didn't have to mandate that people do things just to get them to do it. But unfortunately, we do.

So there is the long and the short of it. CPR certification is required because if it weren't, no one would get the training. If no one got the training, very few people would be able to help when someone goes into a life threatening condition.

So, out of all the things we are required to do by our professions ethics, let's be thankful that this one pays fringe benefits for friends and loved ones.

While you download that music video, movie or tune, take a little time and search for BLS or CPR trainings done in Nigeria. It might end up saving your life or the lives of your loved ones[i][/i]

Any Questions?

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For the Healthcare professionals, what I find odd is that accidents and emergency nurses are still required to present this for certain jobs after a specialization course, their whole course revolves around this and more, yet they'll ask them for it most times.

sweettease:
For the Healthcare professionals, what I find odd is that accidents and emergency nurses are still required to present this for certain jobs after a specialization course, their whole course revolves around this and more, yet they'll ask them for it most times.

Yes, because they realize that everyday there are new changes made and new discoveries added in each and every field. In developed countries and developing ones you have to know that what you learnt as an A&E nurse 5/10 years ago would not be the same today, a few tweaks and changes would have occurred.

Take an example with the American Heart Association BLS, prior to 2010 the sequence was ABC, from 2010 to 2015 it was switched to CAB, this s 2017 and you can still find some individuals who state that the correct sequence is ABC "from what i was taught in school...". Really its your choice to update yourself if you want to grow

avalonnn:

Yes, because they realize that everyday there are new changes made and new discoveries added in each and every field. In developed countries and developing ones you have to know that what you learnt as an A&E nurse 5/10 years ago would not be the same today, a few tweaks and changes would have occurred.

Take an example with the American Heart Association BLS, prior to 2010 the sequence was ABC, from 2010 to 2015 it was switched to CAB, this s 2017 and you can still find some individuals who state that the correct sequence is ABC "from what i was taught in school...". Really its your choice to update yourself if you want to grow

I'm not ignorant of such, even the renewal of nursing license requires a refresher course. I'm talking about fresh graduate out of the program, and there's no way those graduates can even renew the license subsequently without refresher course