Adult CPR
Want to watch this video? Sign up for the course
or enter your email below to watch one free video.
Unlock This Video Now for FREE
This video is normally available to paying customers.
You may unlock this video for FREE. Enter your email address for instant access AND to receive ongoing updates and special discounts related to this topic.
Breaking Down CPR: Steps and Considerations
1. Ensuring Safety First
Prioritizing Safety in CPR
- Assess for Dangers: Always begin by checking for potential hazards in the environment.
- Importance of Safety: Emphasize the critical role of your safety in ensuring the patient's chance of survival.
2. Seeking a Response
Efforts to Rouse the Patient
- Talk and Tap: Attempt to elicit a response from the patient through verbal communication and gentle physical stimuli.
3. Assessing the Airway
Evaluating and Clearing the Airway
- Airway Examination: Inspect the patient's airway for potential obstructions such as foreign objects, liquid, vomit, or blood.
- Utilizing Head Tilt, Chin Lift: Deploy the head tilt and chin lift technique after positioning the patient's stretcher flat.
- 10-Second Airway Check: Observe, listen, and feel for any signs of breathing or airway blockage for no more than 10 seconds.
- Beware of Agonal Gasping: Recognize and distinguish agonal gasping (last breaths) from normal breathing.
- Muscle Movements: Acknowledge that some patients may exhibit limb movements, often mistaken for seizures, due to lack of oxygen stimulation.
4. Initiating CPR
Commencing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
- Immediate CPR: Initiate CPR promptly for the best possible outcome.
- Proper Hand Placement: Position your hands over the chest, approximately at the nipple line.
- Compression Technique: Maintain consistent hand and finger placement, utilizing body weight for compressions.
- Compression Depth: Compress the chest to a depth of 5 to 6 cm, ensuring full recoil for blood refill.
- Compression Rate: Maintain a rate of 120 compressions per minute for optimal blood flow to the brain.