Importance of Knowledge of CPR Techniques to Save More Lives

“Cardiopulmonary arrest is the sudden cessation of spontaneous and effective ventilation and systemic perfusion. In the past, whenever the heart ceases functioning, a patient would consider as dead. But now it is known that certain procedures when carried out within four minutes would make the patient to survive”.

Basic life support (BLS) and advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) are part of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Over time, resuscitation skills have evolved into a proper protocol, which involves CPR commonly known as BLS. Invented in 1960, CPR is a simple but effective procedure that allows almost anyone to sustain life in the early critical minutes after cardiac and respiratory arrest. BLS includes both prompt recognition and immediate support of ventilation and circulation in case of respiratory or cardiac arrest. It has a combination of skills including support to ventilation and chest compression to normalize blood circulation to the brain and vital organs. 

Knowledge of BLS and practice of simple CPR techniques ensures the survival of the patient long enough till experienced medical help arrives and in most cases is itself sufficient for survival. Proper practice of the techniques and manoeuvres enables a person to effectively resuscitate a victim. Ideally, everyone should know BLS and CPR but its awareness to medical personnel is invaluable. Newly qualified doctors are expected to take part in resuscitation from their first day.

In earlier days, CPR training was meant only for health care professionals. Later, it was noticed that many of these events occurred outside the hospital setting and that early CPR need to be performed by bystander who witnessed the event. Hence, CPR is said to be a skill for all people.Quality of life is also found to be better for victims who immediately receive bystander CPR even in the absence of professional assistance. Studies have shown that immediate CPR after collapse due to ventricular fibrillation doubles or even triples the chances of survival. In contrast, survival chances decrease by 7%–10% for every min CPR is delayed.There is an urgent need that every individual at least one who is associated with health care system, should be educated and facilitated to master the skills of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This could be best achieved at grass root level if cardiopulmonary resuscitation training programs are made available to all the nursing staff. Nursing staff are generally found to be very enthusiastic, zealous and very inquisitive to learn lifesaving skills like cardiopulmonary resuscitation which has become basic life support (BLS) provided if it is taught in the right manner and in right time.

Because of the nature of their profession, nurses spend significant time alongside patients and are often the first to realize in-hospital sudden cardiac arrests. Thus, they are the ones who respond by providing CPR. Although their contribution to effective CPR is crucial, either individually or as a member of a rapid response team, studies have often detected that they have average knowledge and poor skills in light of international guidelines and recommendations. Training programs in CPR would make a significant contribution to the elimination of nurses’ anxiety and an increase in their self-confidence. As a result, effectiveness in dealing with a sudden cardiac arrest individually or as members of a team could also be improved.

To summarize, the biggest or greatest benefit of knowing CPR is that it gives you the unique and useful gift of being able to save lives. CPR certification gives you the ability to save the lives of those who have just suffered from a heart attack or a sudden cardiac arrest. It is a fact that cardiac arrests are the leading causes of death in adults and each year, more than 325000 cases of the same are being reported. Those who know CPR can increase the survival rate of victims by more than 40% because each minute that treatment is delayed, the survival chances of the victim gets reduced by 10%. This means that those who are awareof CPR can cause a great difference between life and death of a person. Those who gain CPR training tend to feel empowered and gain a certain better level of confidence which can be applied in many other fields of life such as at home or at work as well.