To illustrate, let's look at a recent interaction I had with someone at a tech conference in San Francisco. When I explained to this person what I do for a living, she made a comment about how she had been CPR certified years ago. "I really should get re-certified though," my new friend says. "I heard that CPR has changed and I wouldn't know what to do if I needed to perform CPR on someone now. You're not supposed to give breaths any more, right?"amandammcaomei

Conversations like this one are not uncommon in my experience, but they give us important insight into what has gone wrong with the CPR certification industry. On a related note, most experts will agree that there is a problem with CPR awareness and willingness for bystanders to respond in an emergency. According to the American Heart Association, the percentage of people who feel helpless to act in a cardiac emergency may be as high as 70 percent.商務中心

So, what is wrong with my friend's response? Several things. The first problem is the perception that CPR re-certification is necessary in order to perform CPR. Put quite simply, it is not. I don't mean to diminish the importance of CPR certification, but it is not required to perform CPR on someone. You simply need to know what to do. In fact, if you call 911, the dispatcher will do his best to explain how you can start CPR on the victim even if you've never been trained in CPR before.lemon25

If CPR certification is not required, then you may wonder, what role does it play? People in certain jobs (such as doctors, nurses, teachers, etc.) are required to be CPR certified in order to respond to emergencies at work. These people need to formally prove that they have been trained in CPR and are competent to perform it as part of their job duties if required -- thus the need for certification. In the past, however, CPR certification has been the only way for people to learn CPR, even if it was not for a job requirement for them. In recent years, free online training in CPR has made the need for certification much less important for lay rescuers who don't need to prove proficiency to an employer or state department and simply want to know how to respond in an emergency.阿爾貝斯蘭克

The next thing that concerns me about this person's response is the statement that CPR has changed in recent years and she wouldn't know what to do. You might stop me here and insist that CPR has changed recently. After all, the 2010 guidelines changed some number sequences and the order of the ABC's, among other things. While this may be true, it is important to remember that these are simply guidelines based on the latest science for the best chance of survival. When it comes down to it, CPR is a technique that is meant to buy time for the victim until advanced life support arrives. Not knowing the latest number sequences is no reason to feel unfit to perform CPR. Doing something is better than doing nothing. An unintended result of certifying people in CPR, communicating the importance of the specific number sequences, and testing people on these numbers has been to over complicate CPR to the point where people feel they are not capable of doing CPR on someone in need.活著之樂趣