CPR certification stands for cardio pulmonary resuscitation certification and it is considered mandatory for a personnel in medical profession. It is know that cardiac arrest can occur at any time without any prior notice. And by the time the person get medical attention he or she might have experience damage to the brain i.e. after cardiac arrest the blood supply stops and brain cannot survive without blood for more than five minutes. So these five minutes are the most vital period for a patient experiencing cardiac arrest because this is the moment that will decide the chance of the patient for being alive or dead. At such situation it would be better if there is someone near the patient who does know CPR. CPR is not only given at time of cardiac arrest but it can also be employed in other critical medical condition like drowning or excess inhalation of gas etc. So by now you might have realized how important it is to be aware of the CPR procedure in order to react immediately in such cases instead of waiting for medical services.
It is not mandatory that every person must know basics this procedure, and off course it depends on the interest of the person. But as far as it is concerned to the health care services team every one must get trained and certified in CRP. There are many institutions that conduct CPR training and certification program. People other than medical team can also take up these courses and for non-medical learner it is not mandatory to get certified. There are many CRP courses offered by many institutes, a medical learner must acquire the CRP certification only in the course that he or she has been trained in. CRP certification becomes mandatory for a medical professional because he or she will be dealing with patients.
Choosing the just right one:
As said before there are many CRP courses available. Anyhow I am glad that you have decided to take up CRP training, good for you and for people around you. Everyone who stands in charge of a group of people must take up this training in order to avoid death due to cardiac arrest, drowning etc. Let me help you here by letting you know how to choose the just right CRP course. The course has to be chosen according to the level of certification required. The certification required for a common man, couch, professional helpers and professionals in medical sector differs. People who want to get hold on to CPR procedure just for sake of emergency condition may or may not be concerned of the certification. People who are in profession like teaching needs to have a certification which is important and not that advanced as a medical professional must have.
The different types of CPR certification available are as follows:-
STANDARD CPR CERTIFICATION:-
This is considered to be the most general version of CPR certification. This certification is in concern with the non-medical personals. The Standard CPR certification can also be called as layperson CPR. The people how come under the categories of acquiring a standard certification are:-
Teacher, coach, camp counselor, school bus driver, personal trainer, Day care worker, Babysitter, Nursing home employee and construction workers. These are the non-medical professionals who might often face situation where they have to act immediately with accidents and emergency conditions, Mostly people training for CPR certification are trained personally. And if you can’t take out much time there is an alternative for you and that is online training.
BLS (Basic Life Support) for the Healthcare Provider:-
It is more advanced than the standard CPR certification and it comes under American Heart Association. This certification is considered mandatory for all the Healthcare service professionals and the candidate can choose whether he/she wants to be specific about AED Certification as well as infant and child CPR Certification.
AED stands for Automated External Defibrillator. Not all programs include it in the training content and if you are specific about it, you need to choose a course that includes AED in the training content.
As the name suggests Infant and child CPR focus on CPR for infants and children. And this certification is mostly demanded by school teacher, Daycare worker, Parents, Coach etc.
Organizations offering CPR certification:
Though the acquiring CPR certification from any of the below mentioned certification would be considered same. The training classes and other details would make a matter in particularly choosing one of them.
- American Heart Association
American Heart Association is very much known for its CRP certification programs. This is the best known option for most of the professional helpers how want to acquire a CPR certification of two years. Most of the professionals and other people opt for CPR Certification from American Heart Association as it suits their requirements. The standard two year certification offered by American Heart Association is BLS (which is recognized two year certification for professional helpers). Advantage of choosing American Heart Association to American Red Cross is the cost- it’s less expensive compared to that of American Red Cross fee structure. However the charges may differ with the location and the institute conducting the training program. In a few case the study manual is included in the course fee itself and sometimes not. You need to enquire about these details before enrolling. The manual would cost you $10 to $15 so you better see to it that it is covered in the course fee itself.
American Red Cross
American Red Cross offers certification for expertise in CRP procedure. American Red Cross is mostly known for the one year certification programs, but anyhow it has also ongoing two year certification program introduced from 2011. This two year certification offered by American Red Cross namely is “CPR for Professionals”. Initially classes conducted by American Red Cross were a bit too long which made many applicants to opt for American Heart Association. But now it has reduced it to normal and comfortable duration for the sake of applicants. You can choose the time slot you are comfortable with. The course will not include any free study manual, you need to buy it and it cost about $10.