CPR is one of the most important life-saving skills there is to learn. Whether you’re a healthcare provider, law enforcement official, childcare professional, or working in a number of positions that deal with people daily, learning CPR can help you save a life. But what about teaching CPR? As it turns out, teaching CPR has all of the benefits of learning CPR and then some. Here are 5 ways that teaching CPR makes you a better healthcare provider, working professional, or community member.
1. Teaching CPR gives others essential life-saving skills.
The first item on our list should come as a surprise to no one. After all, it’s a CPR instructor’s job to teach CPR — which is an incredibly important life-saving technique — to other individuals. Short for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR is an emergency procedure that uses both chest compressions and artificial ventilation to manually supply the brain with oxygen until normal heart function reassumes.
According to the American Heart Association, roughly 366,807 deaths occurred due to cardiac arrest in 2015. Those numbers could have been significantly reduced had proper CPR been administered promptly. The American Heart Association estimates that properly administered CPR can double or triple the chance of survival for an individual suffering from cardiac arrest.
Obtaining your CPR teaching certification and teaching others how to properly perform CPR is a great way to save lives beyond the classroom. Each of your students may have the chance to administer CPR in a real-world situation after completing your course. Some may even go on to pursue careers in the medical field or teach CPR themselves. Learning how to administer CPR is truly a gift that keeps on giving—and as a CPR instructor, you are the original gift-giver.
2. Teaching CPR makes you a better CPR provider.
CPR teaching jobs don’t just help CPR students become better CPR providers — they also help instructors do the same. While any good CPR instructor will already know how to administer CPR, even the most seasoned instructor can hone his or her skills while teaching others. While teaching CPR in an accredited CPR certification course, you will spend hours explaining course material to students, answering questions, giving physical demonstrations, correcting techniques, and devising new ways to more effectively help your students. All of these responsibilities will help you get better at the very skill you’re teaching: CPR.
3. Teaching CPR helps you brush up on other essential life-saving techniques.
Most CPR courses cover more than just CPR. As CPR is often administered to those suffering from cardiac arrest, many CPR courses also touch on skills that can aid in addressing cardiac arrest or simply make it easier to perform. Here at SureFire CPR, our CPR certification course covers how to use an automatic external defibrillator (AED) and how to administer aid to both conscious and unconscious choking victims in addition to detailed CPR instruction. These additional skills help students and instructors alike become proficient in more life-saving techniques. As a CPR instructor, you will have a surplus of hours spent explaining, demonstrating, and practicing these extra life-saving skills—all of which will help you become a much more effective healthcare provider over time.
4. Teaching CPR helps you work with people more effectively and become a better public speaker.
As a healthcare provider or other public-facing professional, you’re going to have to work with people. To do your work effectively, you need to be proficient in a number of interpersonal skills. These include how to clearly and concisely convey ideas, concepts, and instructions, how to answer questions, how to relate to those with different backgrounds than your own, how to diffuse conflict, and much, much more. By becoming a CPR instructor and teaching CPR courses, you will get the chance to hone each of these skills in a real-world setting. Learning how to best interact with your students will help you as you later interact with patients, colleagues, and other personnel in healthcare positions and other professional roles. You could be teaching BLS to a cardiologist one day and CPR to a brand-new babysitter the next. Learning how to teach students with diverse backgrounds will fine-tune your communication skills and help you gain incredible amounts of confidence speaking in front of others.
5. Teaching CPR is a resume-booster.
Last but not least on our list is the on-paper impact of becoming a certified CPR instructor. That’s right: being a CPR instructor is a great resume-booster. To earn this professional position, you must complete hours of instructor training — and to succeed after your training, you must excel at all of the skills mentioned in this guide. Healthcare providers understand this, as do many companies looking to hire professionals in other industries. Experience as a certified CPR instructor shows that you are capable of working well with others, teaching, following instructions, and administering life-saving procedures. These are all invaluable skills to have, which is why “CPR instructor” is an excellent addition to any resume — no matter where you’re applying.
Learn More and Become a CPR Instructor Here at SureFire CPR
For healthcare providers and other professionals, taking a job a as CPR instructor is a great way to learn essential skills and better the community at large. If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of teaching CPR — or if you want to learn how to get certified to teach CPR — our team at SureFire CPR is here to help. Contact us to have your questions answered about all-things CPR, including how you can get CPR-certified and how you can get certified to teach CPR to others. Our Southern California CPR team is also currently hiring new instructors, so visit our We’re Hiring! page to learn how to apply and become a part of our team! Or give us a call at (888) 277-3143
