Sunday, June 30, 2013

Congratulations to new PADI OW Divers: Adilson, Helio and Alberto.
Staying Alive! During April, EFR presented 2013 EFRI Update webinars to assist lapsed EFR instructors regain Teaching Status and to refresh renewed but inactive EFR instructors. These hugely successful webinars covered a number of topics including changes to Guidelines 2010 CPR protocols. One of the points highlighted was the reinforcement by the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) to push the chest to a depth of “at least” 5 cm for adults and children (4 cm for infants) and at a rate of “at least” 100 compressions per minute. The reason for this minor adjustment in wording was to encourage lay responders to continuously push “hard and fast”, focusing on providing effective, high-quality chest compressions with minimal interruptions. To help your EFR participants achieve this, why not get them compressing mannequins in time with the chorus of the famous Bee Gee song, Staying Alive? It's accepted that this rate is effective and optimal when delivering chest compressions and, because the tune is well known, your participants may get value out of using it as a guide. Search YouTube “Staying Alive CPR” to find a number of associated video clips. While, chest ompression only CPR is recommended for bystanders with no formal CPR training, the ERC still recommends chest compressions accompanied by rescue breaths for lay responders who have been taught CPR and are comfortable delivering rescue breaths in a life threatening emergency.