You can Learn CPR Quickly

Ivanhoe Newswire
Thursday, July 26, 2007; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- You could learn how to save lives using cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) over your lunch break, according to researchers from UT Southwester Medical Center.

Their new study reveals 30 minutes in a video-based class is just as effective as taking a three- to four-hour course at teaching basic life-saving techniques. Researchers report six months after training, those who took the shorter course could perform CPR just as well or better than those who took the longer course.

"The results of this formal investigation should not only facilitate more widespread training and frequent re-training in CPR techniques, but it also diminishes some of the inefficiencies and labor-intensity inherent in traditional CPR training," Paul Pepe, M.D., chief of emergency medicine at UT Southwestern, was quoted as saying.

The shorter course is a convenient and easily accessible alternative to the longer course, which can take half a day, study authors write.

For the short course, participants watch a 23-minute instructional DVD, developed by the American Heart Association. The participants are able to practice adult CPR skills on a personal mini-manikin throughout the class. Students also learn the best procedures for choking and how to use an AED, or automated external defibrillator.

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SOURCE: Resuscitation, 2007;74