Empowering young people with life-saving skills: The CPR in schools project
Emergency Department staff at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP) are volunteering to ensure young people have vital life-saving skills thanks to the CPR in school training programme.
Unexpected emergencies can strike at any moment and having life-saving skills can make all the difference. This is something final year medical student, Kara Hole, and UHP Emergency Medicine Consultants, Agatha Pettengell and Suzy Connor, know all too well. Together they developed an idea into a training program that they’ve now delivered to over 330 school students throughout the south west, equipping sixth form students with vital skills that could help them save a life.
Kara, Suzy, and Agatha, along with other members of the Emergency Department, have given up their time, volunteering to share their knowledge of emergency medical interventions. Funding from Plymouth Hospitals Charities helped buy a CPR mannequin and defibrillator trainer, ensuring the group had the necessary equipment to teach effectively. They then created and began delivering 2-hour workshops, designed to provide hands-on, interactive training to young people, especially those in their late teens, preparing to enter adulthood.
“We try and target those in the 16 years plus age-group,” says Agatha, “to give them the knowledge to help themselves and the people around them. This is saying - if you see something and it's safe for you to interact then you have the skills to do something. It's just trying to give them some life skills and I think that's really important. It’s something that myself, Kara and Suzy as the co-leads are really passionate about, giving young people a chance to learn.”
The workshops are dynamic and interactive, with students rotating through stations, dedicated to one key, life-saving skill. During the CPR station, students practice chest compressions and rescue breathing. In the AED (automated external defibrillator) station, they learn how to safely operate the device, which can be the difference between life and death during a cardiac arrest. The 999 station teaches them how to confidently make an emergency call and provides them with an understanding of the response process. Finally, the stop the bleed station gives students the opportunity to apply tourniquets and other bleeding control techniques, even using their own clothing in practical scenarios. “Part of the idea is to give them the confidence to use medical equipment like AEDs and also to be able to make use of what they have on them, such as using clothing as a tourniquet.”
Feedback shows a dramatic improvement in students’ confidence in responding to emergencies by the end of the sessions. Initially, only 7.9% of the 330 students felt extremely confident in performing CPR before the workshop; this increased to 44.5% afterwards. Students described the workshops as “really informative and engaging” with “lots of hands-on experience which has definitely helped my confidence”, with another saying it “improved my understanding of how to save someone in an emergency situation”.
The initiative is also proving to be a stepping stone for students considering careers in healthcare, with question and answer sessions held at the end to foster interest in medical and emergency services careers
“The people teaching them are all voluntarily, giving up their time and coming from different backgrounds like nursing, ED consultants and paramedics,” explains Kara. “We have everyone from the ED teaching on these sessions at various times, so it's a really good opportunity to sort of widen access and provides careers opportunities as well.”
As a measure of the project’s success, the team has been invited to present their work at the National Emergency Medicine Trainees Conference in Bristol, in February. They hope that the scheme can be rolled out to other areas of the country and equip more young people with life-saving skills.
