A while back, my boss asked me and a co-worker to be the people who would teach our staff CPR classes. All of our staff has to be trained to do BLS (Basic Life Support) skills for our jobs. In order to be able to teach others, we each had to take a BLS Instructor class.

My co-worker has already taken the class, and I took mine on Monday. I won’t lie to you, it was pretty intense. They first have to test you to make sure that your skills are satisfactory. So they watched me run through all of the steps for adult and infant CPR. We also learn how to use the AED.

My last renewal was almost two years ago. This time the CPR dummies have lights in them that tell you if you are doing compressions too fast or too slow. It can also tell you if you are doing your compressions deep enough. That helped me a lot.

Once we showed that we were competent in those skills, the training began. We learned what to watch for, how to time everything, and did plenty more chest compressions. There was a team exercise where the entire class responded to a “code” that would last 10 minutes. We had to practice switching roles, communication, and offering positive feedback throughout. 10 minutes felt like 30 minutes. It’s crazy how time feels in those situations. My shoulders are still bugging me a bit.

Once the instructor course was complete, we had to take the test that we will be giving the students in our classes. We also had to take an instructor test. I’ve always had text anxiety, and thought I bombed them. I actually passed both tests and I am one step closer to being an official instructor.

My co-worker and I will have to co-teach a class together while someone watches us. Once we do that, and if all is satisfactory, we’ll get our instructor cards. Just like the student cards, we’ll have to renew them every two years. Once I have my card, I can actually teach outside classes if I want. They say that it is a good way to make some extra money. Not sure I feel comfortable enough to do that yet, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Our boss asked us to give her a couple dates so that we can do our first class. We sent those dates to her today and promised that it would not look anything like this:

There is so much wrong with this photo! Notice how AI gave my dummy two heads!

I’m excited to teach, but scared at the same time. We’ll be responsible for teaching the doctors and RNs, too! No pressure!