Melissa Waddell
Snapshot
Mending Hearts Without Breaking Ribs
Are my students able to apply their BLS skills, with the help of the monitoring system within the manikins, to perform life-saving procedures in the real world? This is the question I will use to drive my innovation in my classroom. I have found in years past that students are unaware of their compression depth and rate during Basic Life Support skills practice. This could lead to over-compressing the chest leading to broken ribs or not compressing at the correct depth required to support circulation.
Students are being assessed on this skill and are showing varying degrees of depth during the assessment. Due to the requirement of such a specific compression depth, the use of a monitoring system with the BLS manikins would greatly increase the student’s understanding of the depth and rate required. I plan to purchase BLS manikins with a light-up monitoring system that will gage their compression depth and rate which will help students see if their efforts are successful. I will require the use of the new manikins, with the compression monitoring system as well as the American Heart Association, to license the students within the course. The outcome I hope will prove that my innovation has succeeded is 100% student licensure through AHA for BLS healthcare provider. This outcome will be measured by the number of students licensed out of total students in course. The use of the compression monitoring system will give my students a more real-world application with the appropriate depth on an adult or infant victim leading to more successful life-saving techniques.