Tonight, I'm going to attend a class on CPR/First Aid with AED, to renew my certification. The immediate goal here is that I need that certification to participate in training for Search and Rescue, but I thought I'd blog about it, because CPR/First Aid is a relatively simple thing that anyone can do to make the world a better place. Of course, EMTs and professionals are the best at what they do, but you have an enormous advantage - you're on the scene. And as you may know, with incidents involving breathing and blood flow, seconds count. If everybody had this kind of training, the world would be like a giant hospital everywhere.
And the training is relatively simple. There are online-only variants, but I can't recommend them. Many organization - such as my Search and Rescue organization - don't allow online-only training. Having been to class, I can say that at least 50% of the value is the hands-on experience with the equipment. You just can't learn how to operate an AED or do chest compressions from a video; you have to get your hands on a dummy and a test AED device. (An AED is a portable defibrillator that can be used to restart a heart).
Generally, classes are about 4 hours and cost somewhere between $50 and $100. I've seen REI teach free or reduced-cost variations, and sometimes organizations such as school districts offer them. There are two big umbrella organizations that offer training - one is the American Heart Association, the other, which I use, is AHSI, the American Health & Safety Institute, which has a class finder web page at http://www.hsi.com/findaclass.
So if you're looking for something concrete you can do, give CPR/First Aid training a shot!
