Science advisory calls for all students to be trained in CPR

All American high school graduates would be required to be effectively trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, if the authors of a new American Heart Association (AHA) science advisory get their way. Officials from the Heart Association penned the advisory alongside those from the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Their advisory also called for mandatory training in how to use automated external defibrillators, better known as heart defibrillators.

One of the advisory's authors says CPR and heart defibrillator training as a requirement for high school graduation would not only do the nation a great service on the side of education, but would also have a fast impact on public safety.

“Training of all secondary education students will add a million trained rescuers to the population every few years,” said Mary Fran Hazinski, RN, MSN, a co-author of the advisory and professor at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, by way of a statement. “Those students will be ready, willing and able to act for many years to come, whenever they witness an emergency within the community.”

As of last year, some 36 states had laws that either required or promoted the addition of CPR and heart defibrillator training as a curriculum standard. The advisory panel acknowledged that expanding the requirement to all 50 states would have some challenges, like costs for equipment and staff. The advisory's authors suggested that that some of those challenges could be circumvented by partnering with local agencies for the necessary materials and using reusable equipment, like manikins. The panel also pointed to schools that use tools like personal training kits with inflatable manikins as potential cost saving models as well.