CPR in the workplace. Why you want to train your employees.

According to the American Time Use Survey, put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans spend approximately 8 hours a day working at their jobs. The next largest chunk of time is spent sleeping at approximately 7.8 hours. Most jobs are conducted in an environment with other players, whether they are your office mates, partners, team or group.

A good way to break out of the mold of everyday work activities is to conduct a CPR Training Class at your work environment. Besides being a welcome change of pace, it stimulates thoughts on healthy living and saving lives. Is there a better way to spend a few hours?

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Most CPR classes include a discussion on heart healthy living habits vs. unhealthy ones. This is included to emphasize the fact that individual’s who have more than one unhealthy habit, have a much higher risk of developing cardiac and vascular damage than people who follow prudent heart living. This information on unhealthy habits has been slow to reach the public because of many years of advertising lies. They claim tobacco, soft drinks, fast food and breakfast cereals (cigarettes, sugar, salt) are part of the American lifestyle and you MUST have it in your homes and consume large quantities of it. They not only convince you to buy it, but your children as well. It has taken years for the government to put restrictions on the advertising and sale of tobacco products. Unfortunately, much too late for my parents, aunts and uncles who were persuaded that smoking was the thing to do in the roaring 20’s. (1920’s that is) They died long painful deaths from every kind of cancer. We need to, absolutely, learn what can hurt us, how to prevent it, and what to do if it does. All office or corporate workers can easily learn ‘hand’s only CPR’. Add in choking (the Heimlich Maneuver) and the use of a public access AED and you have a complete CPR Class.

To be able to recognize the warning signs of heart attacks is knowledge worth having for everyone:

1. Uncomfortable pressure, tightness or squeezing in the chest area.
2. Sweating, nausea or shortness of breath.
3. Back pain or pain moving down the arm or up to the jaw.
4. Skin might be pale, cool and wet.

Encourage your manager or boss to arrange a CPR class for your organization. And when the CPR Instructor arrives at your place of work with the manikins, pay attention and ask questions. Don’t worry; they will make it interesting and fun. Just wear clothing that will be comfortable when kneeling over a manikin.

After cardiac problems, the second leading cause of death in Americans is stroke. (A clot or bleed in the brain instead of the heart)

We need to know those warning signs also because FAST transport to a stroke center is the only thing that can reverse permanent disability and death. Here are the Stroke (brain attack) warning signs:

1. F =Facial drooping
2. A =Arm weakness
3. S =Speech difficulties
4. T =Time to call 911

The more people that know CPR, AED and the Heimlich maneuver, then the more people we can keep alive until the ambulance arrives. Knowing CPR is knowledge and knowledge is definitely power.