Out of hospital cardiac arrest
In 1666, one of the most iconic events in modern science occurred.
While standing in the shade of an apple tree, Sir Isaac Newton watched an apple fall to the ground, and a theory began to form.
At this point, we stop telling Newton’s story and finish our neat story with ‘and gravity was discovered’.
What people forget, however, is that it took almost twenty years for Newton to publish The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. The apple falling began a twenty year process of learning, discovery and refinement.
Just like Newton, we must take that initial thought and dedicate ourselves to continual improvement.
As a first aid practitioner, a key part of your self-development is to keep your knowledge up-to-date. You can do this in 3 ways:
- Review your existing skills (by watching our YouTube videos)
- Learn and expand your skills (by joining our courses)
- Keeping current by reviewing government health policy and research.
Today, we’ll focus on number 3 by reviewing a report published by the Scottish Government in 2015 named Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Strategy for Scotland.
The 52-page document is linked below…
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Or you can read our summary and get the essentials now:
- Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OCHA) is a healthcare challenge. Around 1/3 of OHCA calls result in a resuscitation attempt, but only 16% had a return of pulse before reaching hospital.
- This results in a 1 in 20 survival rate in Scotland for OCHA, 5 times worse than the USA and 6 times worst than the EU average
- Scotland aims to be a leader in OCHA survival by 2020
- This will be achieved by:
- Training an additional 500,000 people in CPR to increase bystander CPR participation and educate that CPR is the ‘right thing to do’ (see our shocking article here – many don’t even try).
- Establishing a Chain of Survival process. This ensures the public, first responder and healthcare practitioner are all providing best possible care for OCHA at every point.
- Making defibrillation units more widely available
- Improving pre/post hospital care to ensure high quality resuscitation is delivered
- Focus on effective rehabilitation and aftercare
Keep your first aid knowledge current and up-to-date!
