Nursing Students Offer Vital Emergency Lifesaving Training

Have you got two minutes to save a life?

You never know when learning life-saving techniques can save a life. For those who have learned some basic emergency procedures and then put them into action, the end result is often transformative.

In a cardiac arrest, every second counts. The same holds true when a person is severely bleeding. A person can die from blood loss in as little as five minutes. The “Stop the Bleed” technique teaches the proper way to apply a tourniquet to help a bleeding victim, until professional assistance arrives on the scene. Today, more and more incidents are happening where victims have had a cardiac arrest or hemorrhaged and died before medically-trained first responders have arrived. In an emergency, no matter how quick the arrival of emergency professionals, bystanders will always be the first on the scene.

Last year, Professor Peg McGrath, MSN RN and Professor Susan Johnson, MSN RN trained the QCC senior nursing students in the Advanced Placement Nurse Education program to teach members of the QCC community two basic life-saving techniques - “Hands-Only CPR” and “Stop the Bleed,” for life threatening bleeding. The nursing students then offered free demonstrations on campus and through their dedication and hard work, trained over 850 students, faculty and staff. This was such a monumental feat that Quinsigamond Community College was honored as the 2018-2019 College Hands-Only CPR Challenge award winner at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Stroke Association of Central Massachusetts.

Once again this year, thanks to Professor McGrath and Professor Johnson who are passionate about paying it forward with these trainings, another group of 65 senior nursing students in the Advanced Placement Nurse Education Program were instructed on these vital life-saving techniques. The nursing students have currently been on QCC’s main campus and at the Healthcare and Workforce Development Center in downtown Worcester, teaching “Hands-Only CPR,” the basics of CPR, and the “Stop the Bleed” technique.

Both professors are asking all members of the QCC community to please take a few minutes of their day and learn these lifesaving skills, to make a difference in the event of an emergency.

 “The only thing more tragic than a death is a death that could have been prevented,” they said.

Already the nursing students have trained over 650 people this year, with a goal of surpassing last year’s number of 850.

Additional training events are still taking place on the college’s West Boylston Street campus on October 3, 2019 at the following locations:

• West Boylston Street, at the Athletic Center from 11:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
• West Boylston Street, on the patio area between the Administration building and the QuEST Center from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

For additional information email Professor Johnson at sjohnson [at] qcc.mass.edu.