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Unique Aspects of AED Programs
in School There are several factors other
than the population being protected that makes AED programs in schools
different from those in other pubic buildings. There is tremendous
opportunity for AEDs and cardiac health to be integrated into the
curriculum. In the earliest grades, it may be sufficient to show an AED
trainer and to describe when and why it is needed. In the upper grades,
instruction in performing CPR and using the AED can actually form a unit
of the secondary health curriculum.
There may be teachers (or others) on the
school staff that are already certified to teach the skills of CPR with
the use of AEDs. If so, training costs can be reduced substantially as
long as the teacher who provides the training is given some consideration
for the hours he puts in.
Finally, the school environment is an
excellent one for AED/CPR instruction. Classrooms with some audiovisual
equipment already exist making it a natural place for AED instruction to
occur. Opening the schools for instruction of community members makes it
much easier on the instructors and is far superior to teaching a class in
the unheated bay of a firehouse or in the lunchroom of a local business.
Every class taught increases the number of people who might respond to a
cardiac emergency in the school environment.
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