With relief and excitement, Lisa Hill, Agency Program Trainer for the Department of Corrections in the state of Oregon describes an incident involving the use of CPR skills at a Corrections facility in Oregon. The Department of Corrections has used MEDIC FIRST AID for its CPR and First Aid training for 8 years.

The Department has nine trainers who teach the MEDIC FIRST AID Basic classes. The program trains over 3,500 employees in the Department of Corrections each year. All staff are trained every two years with refresher courses offered in the odd years.

Some inmates are also trained - generally inmates who are on work details. "That was probably one of the challenges we had a couple of years ago - we have people working out in the woods, two months at a time, fighting fires, and the one staff member is the only one that knows CPR and First Aid. So we have come a long way in that direction - we have trained quite a few inmates."

Lisa met with staff recently who performed CPR on an older staff member who suffered a heart attack. Lisa related that during the debriefing one of the participants said, "We knew we did everything we could, we knew we did it right". Lisa said "That was one of the things they felt good about, that they knew that they didn't forget how many breaths. They even remembered to check the pulse. There was a little bit where he came back for a minute, then he was gone again. But they felt OK about it, which is good." One staff member said, "You know, I didn't even have to think about it, it just happened."

Providing effective first aid training and instilling confidence in the students has made Lisa a big advocate of MEDIC FIRST AID.