Training for Immediate Response
Employers can build a safer workplace through CPR, AED and first aid education.
- By Alyssa Fillmore
- Sep 06, 2023
Every year, some 436,000 people in the United States fall victim to sudden cardiac arrest, with about 10,000 occurring at the workplace. Unfortunately, only about 40 percent of people who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest get the immediate help that they need before professional support arrives. So, unless workers are trained up on an effective approach to CPR safety, odds are the colleague who collapses may not survive.
But if employees are properly trained, people stricken with a cardiac arrest face much better odds. Studies show that immediate CPR can double or triple a person’s chance of survival.
The question then becomes how to ensure that your workplace is prepared? Not all workplace safety training emphasizes the same topics or the same approaches to student learning to improve retention of lifesaving skills.
Occupational health and safety managers should look for courses that prepare employees to provide immediate care to an ill or injured person until the arrival of more advanced medical personnel.
For example, training should teach employees to use an automated external defibrillator (AED). AEDs are devices that analyze the heart’s rhythm and, if necessary, deliver an electrical shock, known as defibrillation, which helps the heart re-establish an effective rhythm.
Dan Costa, CEO and founder of OPS Security Group in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, says that having his 700 employees trained on AEDs is essential. The cardiac arrest suffered by Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin during a game this past season “not only proved why it's necessary to have AEDs, but if you do need it, you want to know how to properly administer and set up the AEDs so the machine can do its job,” he says.
Dan Castagna, whose Philadelphia-based company, Emergency Care, Health & Safety, certifies instructors in Red Cross training, says that AEDs — and rigorous training on how to use them —are vital in the workplace.
“CPR alone is not going to correct an abnormal heart rhythm. You need the electricity to do so,” he says. “The AED is extremely crucial in with conjunction with CPR.”
In addition to training employees to recognize signs of cardiac arrest, provide CPR and use an AED, health and safety programs should provide comprehensive training in a range of workplace health emergencies.
This article originally appeared in the September 2023 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.