Every year 350,000 people go into cardiac arrest when not in a hospital, and the majority of them don't make it.
Staff in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine are well acquainted with facts like those because their clinicians treat such patients. While advanced cardiac life support skills are required for clinicians, Administrative Specialist Tawny Bagnol realized that nonclinical staff like herself lacked the basic CPR training that could save a patient’s life. That realization prompted her to champion a hands-only CPR training event for division administrative staff earlier this year in February, which the American Heart Association has deemed “Heart Month.” (Watch the video below for more insight into the event, featuring Twany Bagnol and Division Chief Eldrin Lewis, MD, MPH.)
Dr. Lewis shares, “We work in one of the best academic medical centers in the world, and our health care providers all know CPR, which is part of our training. But it takes a village to run a medical school and a medical center.
There are a lot of people who are here to support physicians and nurses and other advanced practice providers, but they may not have ever even thought about the importance of knowing CPR. It would be sad if there was a loved one who happened to have a cardiac arrest, and despite working here at Stanford for so many years, that person never learned how to do CPR,” he said.
“At Stanford, we're surrounded by so many different physicians and resources for research and education, and I knew that we had the means available to train our staff and equip them with the tools needed to respond to these emergencies. Support staff may not be the same as trained medical staff, but we definitely can make a difference,” Bagnol adds.
“Standard CPR training used to involve learning how to breathe and then how to do chest compressions. But about 25 years ago we realized that a lot of people were getting confused about how many times to breathe and how many times to do chest compressions. There were also concerns about helping a stranger in cardiac arrest, especially at a time when people feared communicable diseases like HIV,” Lewis says. “But seconds count during cardiac arrest. While bystanders were questioning whether they should step in, brain cells were dying — and in too many cases, that hesitation was costing lives.”
Since then, the cardiovascular medical community has recognized that adequate chest compressions through hands-only CPR, paired with someone calling 911, can remove the complexity of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while circulating enough oxygen to help sustain the patient until professional help arrives.
CPR Resources for All
During the cardiovascular medicine division’s hands-only training sessions, participants learned about a number of resources. Tawny Bagnol shares the following links and other information:
- American Heart Association (AHA) Hands-Only CPR Resources
- Songs to sing while performing CPR to ensure the proper rate of chest compression: Don't Drop the Beat Spotify Playlist
- PulsePoint AED Locator and Registry App
- Stanford Training for CPR:
- First Aid/CPR/AED Training (Adults and Pediatrics)
- Class Code: RDE-4400-031926-SHO ENGLISH
- Price per Seat: 60.00 USD
- Duration: 4.5 hours
- See STARS
Or, as Bagnol says: “Hands-only CPR is essentially CPR training without the breath of life. It’s intended for bystanders or lay people so they have the opportunity to act when someone is undergoing a heart attack.”
One aim of the training was to raise awareness about the value of CPR, and the results indicate that the goal was achieved.
“From this training we wanted to make sure that everyone felt like they could make a difference. We wanted to empower them, not only among our coworkers, but even with strangers. Perhaps most importantly, it could help with our loved ones at home because most heart attacks happen when you're among your loved ones. So having this knowledge just makes us feel more confident,” Bagnol says.
