Cardiovascular Arrest

Answer

Introduction

            Cardiovascular Arrest is one of the leading causes of deaths in the United States. According to the American Heart Association (2016), this condition, also referred to as cardiopulmonary arrest occurs when the heart suddenly ceases to perform its critical role of pumping blood to all other parts of the body. In most cases, when the condition occurs, one may suddenly collapse, he or she is unable to breath and the body becomes unresponsive. Without immediate attention, this condition leads to death. Nonetheless, this condition may occur to anyone at anytime. Based on this fact, the American Heart Association realized that high school teenagers have a better chance of encountering such conditions either at home or at school and for this reason, they should be trained on how to administer Emergency Cardiovascular Care like CPR and ECC. The CPR Policy for High School Teenagers was later developed as a national policy to guide high schools on how to train students on the administration of CPR as this would help save lives.

Problem and Background

            According to Kong et al (2011), over 250,000 Americans lose their lives every year to cardiovascular arrest. Out of the total arrests that occur across the country, four out of five occur at home (Pannoni, 2014). As an unpredictable conditions with such a high death toll, the condition is among the leading causes of death in the country (AHA, 2016). Unfortunately, this condition is sudden and yet dangerous as it can lead to death within a very short time. The role of doctors, nurses and other medical practitioners in the country has always been effective towards attending to patients with the condition. However, there are numerous cases where the patient is unable to wait for the emergency response medical team and thus succumbs to the condition before he or she is attended to. For this reason, based on the realization that majority of the attacks occur at home, the American Heart Association recommended that high school teenagers be trained on how to administer Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) (Sorets & Mateen, 2015). Doctor Atkins notes that by administering emergency CPR immediately after an attack, a patient has a "double or triple chance of surviving", unfortunately, the AHA notes that "only 32% of victims get CPR from an onlooker" (Pannoni, 2014).

            The AHA therefore decided to develop a policy that recommends all high schools to train the students (especially teenagers) on how to administer CPR as part of the school curriculum. This recommendation was however adopted selectively in various states. For instance, in Alabama, the policy was adopted in 1983 where as until today, it is still optional in some states like Missouri (AHA, 2016). In fact, there are only 23 estates in which the CPR training is mandatory for graduation in high school. This paper therefore recommends that the federal government should develop a nationwide policy that would ensure all high school teenagers across the country (in all states) are trained on the administration of CPR. Although it may be argued that some institutions do not offer health as part of their core units, a provision should be made in this law in order to allow such institutions to offer this training as part of an integrated unit in another related science or unit. The national policy should also emphasize that the training should be based on an evidence-based approach where actual demonstrations are part of the study. Lastly, the AHA should be given the role to develop and facilitate the implementation of the curriculum across the nation. This would help to ensure a common curriculum is maintained and the training standards are upheld across the country.

Evaluation of Policy and Recommendations

            High school teenagers are critical to the society for various reasons. Other than being available at social events (social gatherings), homes and at schools, they are also the link to the future. In this regard, utilizing this population to solve issues in the society is important as it helps to guarantee a better society, now, and in the future (Travis and Leech, 2014). The CPR policy was developed to target the high school teenagers since their interactions give them a better chance of encountering patients with cardiovascular arrests. By increasing the teenagers' capacity to attend to the patients, the death toll due to the condition can be reduced (Pannoni, 2014). The nursing practice is also eased on the pressure to attend to all the patients who are brought in at critical states and this contributes to improved chances of lives. According to doctor Atkins, chest compressions require an average of 110 pounds of pressure which can comfortably be offered by the teenagers (Pannoni, 2014). For this reason, the 30mins or over training sessions at high schools can effectively help to save lives today and in the future. One clear illustration of the success and importance of this training is that of Monica Whittle which is available in the AHA (2016) website. According to the testimony, Whittle's husband suffered a cardiac arrest in 2011 and his wife was able to administer CPR on him thus saving his life. One critical aspect of this testimony is that Whittle learnt how to administer CPR 30 years ago at Biloxi, MS middle school. Ostensibly, by targeting teenagers in this training the lesson can have a lifelong impact.

            The optional adoption of the training in various states across the country, offers limited success that can be optimized as soon as possible. The federal health and education departments have to develop a national policy that demands universal adoption of the training in all schools within the state. This would help transfer the benefits of the training to the entire country and future of the nation. With the change in lifestyle across the nation, it is also clear that there would be an increase in lifestyle diseases in the country. Cardiac arrest is a lifestyle condition that can affect any age group and therefore the society should be well-prepared to handle any new cases despite the on-going efforts to prevent its occurrence (Kong et al, 2011). This will also reduce the over-dependence of nurses in the current hospitals as they can focus on the provision of care to other patients as opposed to attending to the high number of emergencies due to cardiac arrests. As part of their practice, the training would enable the nurses to encourage their patients that they still have a better chance of surviving even when they are far from the care providers as the society has trained people who would assist them (Sorets & Mateen, 2015). This is especially effective when the cardiac arrest patient has a teenager in the family. The teenager may link with the hospital to understand his or her level of training and thus the patient can be allowed to stay at home as he or she will still be under effective care. Accordingly, making the training optional in schools limits the care to nurses and other care providers and this would limit the survival rates of the cardiac arrest patients (Sorets & Mateen, 2015).

Access to Information and Target

            Information on the current state of the CPR policy for high school teenagers across the US is available through the American Heart Association website. This national organization states the main reason for the development of the policy (To Save Lives) and how the policy is being implemented to date. The states conducting the training as a compulsory training prior to graduation have also been shortlisted. On the other hand, information on the current state of the policy in the state of Missouri is available in the state's office of the governor. After consultation with my district legislator, I was able to understand that Missouri allows the training on an optional basis and thus few school have adopted the training. I therefore made the aforementioned recommendations to the district legislator.

Conclusion

            Cardiovascular arrests leads to about 300,000 deaths every year, across the US. As a leading and unpredictable cause of death, patients have to receive immediate care whenever it occurs. This paper acknowledges the American Heart Association's policy recommendation that CPR training has to be administered to teenagers in high schools. This is because the teenagers are physically and mentally able to offer the emergency care. The teenagers are also able to offer the care today and in the future and this will be effective for the country's future and lastly, these age group is available in numerous settings where they can always offer effective care. On the other hand, the CPR training is also effective as it will help ease the pressure to attend to emergency attacks by the nurses. The nurses can therefore attend to other cases effectively. For these reasons. This paper also recommends that the AHA policy on CPR in high schools be adopted nationally and offered through an evidence-based approach. The information in this study was gathered through the AHA website, Missouri district legislator and Governor's office.