CPR Training for High School Graduates

CPR training now required to graduate high school in Louisiana

Published: 3:41 pm CDT, June 10, 2014

Louisiana has become the 17^th state to pass a law requiring all high school students to take CPR training, adding to the more than 1 million graduates who will be equipped with this lifesaving skill every year.
The legislation was passed unanimously by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday. It takes effect in the 2014-2015 school year.
“Too few people in our community are trained in CPR to respond in these emergency situations. But this law will change that,” said Kay Eddleman, volunteer chair of the American Heart Association’s Louisiana Advocacy Committee.
Louisiana had a law in place that required that CPR be taught, but not a practice requirement that went along with it, said Coletta Barrett, R.N., vice president of mission for Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“For someone to know they’re supposed to do CPR but not know how to do it could be frustrating,” said Barrett, also past chairman of the board of the American Heart Association. “We wanted to add this to the current law to make it clear we would give students the skills to practice what they’re supposed to do.”
The AHA and other organizations are pushing state legislatures across the country to pass bills requiring CPR and automated external defibrillator training for high school students.
No one knows for sure where and when a sudden cardiac arrest may strike, so training more people increases the odds someone will be prepared to give CPR. School-based CPR training is one of the most effective ways to get large numbers trained in this simple, lifesaving skill.
Bystander CPR can double or triple survival rates from cardiac arrest. However, many people do not get help from bystanders who could provide CPR if they knew how.
Of the roughly 424,000 Americans who have a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital each year, only 40 percent get CPR from a bystander and only about 10 percent survive. Most people don’t know how to use AEDs, which deliver an electric shock to stop cardiac arrest, although they’re becoming more widely available.
Source: AHA
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