Is Your School, Team, Camp and Youth Center Prepared for a Cardiac Emergency?
Sudden cardiac arrest is the #1 killer of student athletes and the leading cause of death on school campuses. Most organizations are under-prepared to respond to a cardiac emergency, in contrast to the ample time and resources invested in fire safety and concussions—a much lesser threat. Every school must have fire extinguishers and conduct fire drills, so given the statistics, why isn’t there a national standard for protecting young hearts at school, on the field and at camps and youth centers?
Earn A Free AED For Your Organization!
In response, an American Heart Association task force developed a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan (CERP) toolkit that empowers schools and other places youth congregate to be prepared for a cardiac emergency. As a co-member of this task force, Parent Heart Watch created Get Charged Up! to support putting a plan into action to arm youth communities with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and CERPs to protect young hearts.
The goals of the program are to model the importance of AEDs and CERPs to prevent sudden cardiac death by readying administrators, educators, school nurses, coaches, counselors, parents and youth to the role they can play to champion prevention in their community.
Participants are selected based on available resources. See the blue box for status of our current program.
School applicants must:
- represent a public elementary, middle, high or combined school in the continental U.S. (excluding Alaska & Hawaii)
- complete an online application form (click link below)
- confirm school administration is committed to the program
- participate in a one (1) hour orientation webinar
- establish a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan (CERP) as per the toolkit provided
- use the CERP template to personalize the plan to your school
- schedule drills to test school readiness to act on the plan
- communicate with your school community about SCA awareness, the new AED and CERP
- meet program milestones as outlined in the virtual webinar
- participate in a post-program survey
- share a photos of the program in action (e.g. CER team meeting, CPR/AED training, staff development on SCA, installing AED, drill)
Teams, Camps and Youth Centers must:
- adhere to same guidelines as above relevant to your organization
- properly install and maintain the AED as per recommended guidelines (which includes costs to replace battery and pads as directed)
Educate
Understand the steps in the cardiac chain of survival:
• Recognize SCA
• Call 911
• Start CPR
• Retrieve & Apply AED
OBJECTIVES
Empower
Immediate bystander response to a cardiac emergency can triple chance of survival.
Implement
Utilize free turnkey CERP toolkit to ensure school campus, team, camp or youth center is prepared to respond to a cardiac emergency.
Find more on Cardiac Emergency Response Plans and AEDs. Request free educational materials.
Contact us with your questions.
Sponsored by:
Parent Heart Watch shares our drive to promote health literacy among our students. They have been an excellent resource on sudden cardiac arrest prevention in youth, and have piloted a successful partnership to engage health and physical educators in championing cardiac emergency response plans in schools. We look forward to their continued collaboration to protect young hearts.
Joe Halowich, Senior Program Manager, SHAPE America
The Get Charged Up! Program has been a wonderful resource for our high school. Not only have we been provided a brand new AED for participating in the pilot program, we have been given so much pertinent training and educational materials on sudden cardiac arrest. We also received a helpful toolkit outlining how to set up a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan for our school and guidance in disseminating sudden cardiac awareness prevention information to our staff, school community and parent groups. Many thanks to Parent Heart Watch, Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, NASN, and so many others who developed this life saving system for schools!
Margie Blackmon, MSN, RN, Mount Si High School Nurse, Snoqualmie Valley School District
NASN is pleased to join forces with Parent Heart Watch with their launch of Get Charged Up. Often the first indication of an abnormal heart rhythm is a sudden cardiac arrest. The Cardiac Emergency Response Plan, which includes quick access to an automatic external defibrillator will save lives. PHW helps school nurses educate students and families and in the event of an emergency, more first responders will be prepared with rapid access to the AED.
Beth Mattey, MSN, RN, NCSN, Past President, National Association of School Nurses