Monthly Archives: June 2016

5 Excellent Ways To Stop Infection From Spreading

Every year, millions suffer from health care-associated infections. What’s surprising is that most of these infections can be prevented easily enough by good hand washing habits.

Hand Washing Saves Lives

By properly washing your hands with soap and water, you essentially kill any bacteria and virus, keeping them from spreading any further. In the most recent outbreak of Ebola outbreak, for instance, hand hygiene played a key role in response and recovery efforts, says the World Health Organization.

That’s why lack of proper hand hygiene can contribute to the spread of infection. As soon as you touch a contaminated object or surface, you immediately run the risk of spreading bacteria and germs. The same thing happens when sick people cough or sneeze without closing their mouths. They immediately let virus agents loose in the air.

Avoid Unsafe Water

If you aren’t sure of where the water comes from, don’t use it. Using unclean or unsafe water for cooking or drinking is dangerous. Boil it first to make sure it’s potable.

Careful Food Preparation and Storage

Some types of food need to be prepared carefully. If you don’t know how to do this, get your research done. Go online or ask friends and family. Also, food can spoil under certain conditions and attract germs as well as bacteria that can cause damage to your health. So store them carefully.

Get an Infection Control Certification

Sometimes the best way to learn how to keep infections at bay is to hear it right from the experts. So opt for an infection control certification program. That way, you’ll have access to the information and training you need to make sure you do your best to kill the spread of germs and infection.

Be Careful With Animals

It’s wise to keep your distance from animals in the wild. You never know what infections rabid animals might carry. When it comes to your own pets, though, make sure they’ve been vaccinated against infections and keep their food stored in a safe place. Otherwise, it could attract rats to your home, which often carry infectious agents that could also infect your pets.

Conclusion

It’s easy to spread germs and infection without even knowing you’re doing it. That’s why training helps. By knowing what to do to make sure you keep your home free from bacteria, virus and infection, you ensure not just your personal safety and health but those of your loved ones as well. For questions and inquiries, get in touch with us at Simple CPR today.

3 Reasons You Need BLS Training

There’s no telling what could happen in the future. One minute, you and your colleagues are in a meeting and suddenly, someone’s on the floor, having a heart attack. The Centers for Disease and Prevention Control has said that about 735,000 Americans have a heart attack every year. Out of that figure, about 525,000 people are having a heart attack for the first time.

What The Numbers Say

Those are huge numbers. But what’s even more alarming is the fact that about 70 percent of Americans don’t know how to perform life-saving measures, the US News reported. Imagine the lives that could’ve been saved if only more people knew how to perform CPR or BLS. That could be you, a colleague or someone you love.

Benefits Of BLS Training

So if you’re wondering if you should go ahead and get BLS certification, we list down 3 of the best reasons why you should:

  • 1. It saves lives. There’s no greater satisfaction than knowing you’ve helped save a life, that you’ve done your part to ensure someone still gets to come home to his family or be there for Thanksgiving.
  • 2. When you do basic life saving techniques such as CPR, you don’t actually restart someone’s heart. Rather, you help him or her keep the blood pumping throughout the body. That means oxygen gets into the brain as well. Since you only have 4 to 6 minutes after the oxygen has been cut off before brain damage starts, BLS helps keep the brain’s oxygen supply steady, keeping brain damage and other possible complications at bay.
  • 3. It ensures faster victim recovery. Administering BLS techniques early on makes a difference in the patient’s rate of recovery. The sooner you carry out CPR or resuscitation measures, the better the patient’s chances at recovery will be.

 
Other Tips

  • 1. Go to a refresher course. Healthsafety says CPR knowledge retention falls in as short as 3 months. You never know when an emergency might involve someone you love. So keep your skills up to date.
  • 2. A lot of cardiac arrests happen at home. To ensure the safety and health of your loved ones, get everyone enrolled in a BLS course.
  • 3. Be first-aid ready. Accidents happen quite frequently at homes too. Make sure you know how to do first aid and keep your first aid kit stocked at all times.

 
For more information on CPR and First Aid courses, contact us at Simple CPR.

First Aid Do’s: How To Handle A Medical Emergency

Taking care of your loved ones means being ready for anything, including medical emergencies. You don’t have to be a doctor to help, though. Read on to find out what you can do a lot to keep the situation from getting worse. Here are a few tips on how to deal with an emergency if and when it happens:

    1. Call 911.

This should be your first step in any situation. That way, you know help is only minutes away. Do your best to make sure the victim is in a stable condition until help arrives. If it involves a bad fall, don’t move the victim until the EMTs arrive. You might exacerbate the condition, otherwise.

    2. Learn How To Deal With An Emergency.

Emergency situations commonly involve someone choking, drowning or falling down the stairs. Educate yourself by learning how to do a proper Heimlich maneuver to stop someone from choking. Enroll in a training program to know how to perform CPR on someone who drowned. These skills will definitely come in handy especially if you’ve got kids in the house. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the leading cause of death in kids from 1 up to 14 years of age are unintentional injuries caused by accidents.

    3. Have Your Emergency First Kit Ready At All Times.

Administering first aid within seconds of an accident can help keep the damage from getting worse. This is especially true if you’re dealing with a cardiac arrest. Minutes count in such cases. By performing first aid measures such as CPR or BLS techniques, you can improve the victim’s chances of survival.

Conclusion

The best way to deal with a medical emergency is to prepare for it. So get yourself emergency-ready. Enroll in a first aid certification course to get the training and knowledge you need. That way, when emergencies happen, you won’t just stand there, frantically dialing 911. You can do more than help. You can make a difference by saving a life. For more information about CPR training, get in touch with us at Simple CPR.