HFD eng1ine said:
I think this is a good idea. Seeing how most bystanders dont do a fucking thing at a cardiac arrest, maybe teaching them what to look for and how to do hands only cpr should be necessary when renewing a license. If you are already a provider you could just show proof of training. Would everyone take it seriously? No...but making it a reguirement would make sure more people know CPR than they do now.
Good idea or no..
Kent
I agree that it's a good idea in theory but way too challenging to implement, & there are a million different liability issues and health issues. There is also the huge cost factor associated with those courses, so imagine trying to get even a quarter of the US pop. certified (which would be like 80 million). Many companies/corporations are nowadays working to ensure that there are several CPR-certified staff on premises at all times (whether it's security, managers, a small internal "response team," etc)
As for the liability & health issues, I think that there are 3 main categories of people:
1) those that know what to do but are worried about getting sued (despite the Good Samaritan
law)
2) those that know what to do but are worried about BSI (I don't know about y'all, but paramedic school made me a germophobic, so I don't wanna touch, let alone get all up close with, a stranger without any protective barriers...unless she's Heidi Klum)
3) people that think they know what they're doing but will probably end up doing more harm than good; honestly, most people that pass a basic CPR class probably didn't know what to do when they somehow passed the course or won't remember what to do 5 min after the course ended. While teaching lay persons to do compressions only seems simple enough, common sense is not common & I don't want some random Joe Schmo to try to work me
Lastly, what if someone refuses to take the CPR course (for whatever reason) but otherwise has an okay driving history...are you going to revoke their driving privileges just because of that? Being born and raised in the Northeast, which is an area that probably has the highest amt of douchebags per capita, I can guarantee you that > 2/3 of the drivers in the tristate area would instantly lose their licenses if that were the case.
Like I said earlier, great idea in theory, but certainly not plausible in real life IMHO