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RCN calls for children to receive CPR training

Children across the UK should learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to equip them to save lives, politicians have been told.
Children CPR

Delegates at RCN congress in Glasgow last month called on the UK governments to make the teaching of CPR to schoolchildren mandatory. 

They also said that the immediate action of bystanders was vital to increase survival rates of cardiac arrests.

Speaking on behalf of the college’s Dumfries and Galloway branch, University of the West of Scotland lecturer Valerie Douglas said that training schoolchildren in CPR would take only 30 minutes.

Tremendous impact

‘The cost of CPR training is low, but the impact would be tremendous,’ she said. ‘It may well save your life or the life of a child.’

But Jean Fisher of RCN Herefordshire branch said that, while it takes 30 minutes to teach a child CPR, it takes longer to help them understand the implications of failing at it. 

Overwhelmingly passed

She warned: ‘The risks to a child who has attempted CPR and been unsuccessful and who then doesn’t get support could be significant.’

The resolution was overwhelmingly passed, with 30 abstentions and 19 votes against.

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