Be a Star, Learn CPR!

Most of you already know about the importance of CPR, whether you have experienced its impact in real life or heard stories about how it can save someone’s life. Sudden cardiac arrest is the main reason why people need CPR. Being able to detect the signs on men, women, and children are essential, because symptoms vary among different people. Learning CPR and knowing how to effectively administer it can help you save a life. Bystander CPR (BCPR) improves survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, but BCPR rates are very low. Immediate CPR after a cardiac arrest can double or even triple a person’s odds for survival, so the person who can administer BCPR plays an integral role in the chain of survival.

Chances are that if you graduated from a Texas public high school, you have been taught CPR. Texas law requires high school students to learn CPR once before they graduate, but often this is not enough to get a comprehensive understanding of updated CPR techniques. In fact, CPR techniques are changing as you read this. The American Heart Association (AHA) just released new guidelines this year to improve CPR technique and implementation. In new classes, you’ll be able to learn how to perform CPR on people of all ages, when, and how to assist in various situations.

Since CPR techniques are continuously improving, it is important to stay up to date on the new and current protocols. To become CPR certified, you have to learn how to operate an automated external defibrillator (AED). Though operating a defibrillator sounds intimidating, it is actually easy to use. The AED is completely user friendly and instructs you in real time for safe operation. While the process of learning CPR and basic life support can seem daunting, the skills that you’ll learn will give you the tools to save someone’s life in any situation.

As a Texas Nova, one of our pillars is service. While there are many ways to give back, learning how to perform CPR can make one of the biggest impacts in our own communities. We can all take part in giving back to our loved ones and community members by becoming prepared if anyone needs CPR or other basic life support measures. This is just one of many ways to be a light in and out of campus.

Links to sign up for CPR classes:

AHA on what kind of CPR and First Aid classes you should sign up for: https://cpr.heart.org/en/course-catalog-search

Red Cross online classes: https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/cpr/cpr-training/cpr-online