General Concepts

Introduction

Welcome to the BLS/CPR for Healthcare Providers Course.  With the knowledge and skills you learn in this course you can save a life.  You will learn the skills of CPR for victims of all ages.  You will learn how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED).  You will learn how to relieve choking (foreign-body airway obstruction).  The skills you learn in this course will enable you to recognize emergencies such as sudden cardiac arrest and how to respond to them.

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a leading cause of death in the United States and Canada.  Although estimates of the annual number of deaths due to out-of-hospitals SCA vary widely, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that tin the United States approximately 330,000 people die annually from coronary heart disease before reaching a hospital or in the emergency room (an approximation of out-of-hospital SCA).  About 250,000 of those deaths occur in the out-of-hospital setting.  The annual incidence of SCA in North America has separately been estimated to be 0.55 per 1000 population. 

Learning Objectives

At the end of this section you will be able to:

• Recall the basic steps of CPR for adults
• Show the basic steps of CPR for adults

Understanding the ABCDs of CPR

• CPR consist of 4 main parts
• Air way
• Breathing
• Circulation
• Defibrillation

You will learn about each of these throughout this course.  Note: We will start with the easiest and very important skill of chest compressions.  Later we will teach you how these skills fit together in the right order for CPR.

Contents

• CPR for Adults
• CPR for Children (1 year of age to Puberty)
• Adult and Child Bag-Mask Technique and Rescue Breathing
• 2-Rescuer CPR for Adults and Children
• Automated External Defibrillator
• CPR for Infants