CPR training has recently become the hype, as Americans are becoming aware of the dangerous complications that cardiovascular and respiratory conditions can bring about. Cardiac arrest is the end point wherein CPR needs to be done as soon as possible on the victim. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation itself is made up of a group of skills and techniques, taught in all our classes at San Francisco CPR.
Visit our website for San Francisco CPR so you can see all the classes we have on offer through the week. You will often find that we add classes during the weekends and evenings because of the volume of students that sign up, so check back on our schedules often!
Getting started: Prerequisites for a CPR class
We categorize our programs into basic and advanced, based on the Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support guidelines from the AHA (American Heart Association). For students who want to enroll in a basic class, there are no prerequisites prior to starting training. However, the same with our two advanced classes, in order to receive a training credential, the student has to pass the certification exam and have complete attendance.
Our basic CPR classes are as follows:
- Heartsaver – A general public class that teaches basic one-rescue CPR (4 hrs.)
- Heartsaver C – A health care provider class that teaches basic one-rescuer CPR (4.5 hrs.)
- Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers – A health care provider class that teaches one and two-rescuer CPR (4.5 hrs.), re-certification is available (4 hrs.)
Advanced courses also include an introduction to the basics of CPR, but more focus is placed on medical management. Because medical management can only be performed by certified or licensed professionals, there are two prerequisites that students need to complete before they can qualify for either ALS class.
The prerequisites are:
- Passing the pre-test
- Valid credential for Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers class (BLS class)
We have two ALS classes available:
- Advanced Cardiac Life Support – Teaches in-hospital medical management of adult patients
- Pediatric Advanced Life Support – Teaches in-hospital medical management of infant and toddler patients (pediatric CPR rescue)
Learning about the risks
The statistics for heart disease in the US are troubling, but have greatly improved over the same of ten years. The actual numbers have decreased by as much as 30 percent between 2000 and 2012. However, it remains a fact that more than 500,000 Americans each year are killed by a cardiac condition. Out of that mortality rate, 300,000 and more were caused specifically by coronary artery disease. Statistically speaking, that’s one death every 33 seconds – a very worrying number.
Signing up for a class at San Francisco CPR can help teach you how you can save the life of someone who has had a heart attack. The skills we teach students are up to date, and have been studied and endorsed by numerous organizations in the US.