What You Need to Know About CPR Certification

In the 1960s an artificial resuscitation training video named "The Pulse of Life" was released by James Jude, Guy Knickerbocker and Peter Safar, this marked the birth of the CPR technique as we know it today. Since then several changes have been made to the way CPR is administered and perhaps the introduction of online CPR certification was the most notable among them.

CPR is one of those life saving first aid techniques that can be learnt by anyone; its importance can be gauged from the fact that certain profession have made it a must to have a CPR certification. CPR is administered to people when blood flow to the brain has stopped (in cases such as cardiac arrest). The brain can survive without oxygen for about five minutes, so if blood flow is not resumed within those 5 minutes the person can die. CPR helps in restoring the blood flow and resume normal body function.

CPR can be administered by only those who have taken proper training and have a CPR certification. Getting a CPR certification is not a Herculean task; even normal people can take the training and know this life saving technique. Every day we face several situations (such as choking on gas, drowning) where calling for medical help may take too long, in such cases if you have a CPR certification then you can save a life by administering artificial resuscitation. Since its inception there have been several changes but the intent has always remained the same-saving life. According to the new guidelines updated in 2010:

• Compression depth has been increased to 2.5 inches, minimum and compression rate is 100 compressions per minute.
• Using blind finger sweeps stopped
• In case of children and infants 5 cycles of CPR must be given before dialing 911
• Hands to be placed on the inter-mammary line

There are several organizations that provide training classes for first aid and CPR certification; some even provide online classes for CPR. Attending online classes may be easy and quick but if seen from a logical point of view offline or onsite classes are more effective. In onsite classes the instructor guides you through every step of the process, brings a dummy to practice on and only when you have perfected the technique you are given the CPR certification. Organizations such as EnjoyCPR offer onsite classes in different formats, namely- Group classes, Home classes and Family Classes. So if you want to be a good Samaritan and save others then before you do so don’t forget to get your CPR certification.