Happy Hearts: Free Community Infant & Child Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Classes for Pitt County Mothers Grant uri icon

abstract

  • This community service project addresses the need for a free community child CPR and choking rescue program for Pitt County mothers. Vidant Medical Center (VMC) currently has a free community infant CPR program that teaches mothers how to save babies up to 12 months. This program was developed by ECU Brody School of Medicine students, Rebecca Jones and Reena Patel, who were registered nurses in Neonatal Intensive Care and Labor & Delivery prior to attending medical school. In 2017, the students developed and implemented a free maternal education pilot program for the Albert Schweitzer fellowship. Total class attendance was over 200 participants. Desiring to meet the need in the community, the pair approached VMC Perinatal Education about incorporating a free infant CPR program into the perinatal curriculum. The first hospital-based community classes began in the James and Connie Maynard Children's Hospital Seascape Theater in January 2018. The American Heart Association (AHA) Family & Friends infant CPR classes are offered twice monthly and classes are taught by volunteer American Heart Association (AHA) instructors and medical student facilitators. After holding these classes for 6 months, mothers in attendance have consistently requested child CPR classes to learn how to save their older children in case of an emergency. EMS total response times in Pitt County averaged over 10 minutes in 2016-2017. In 2016, suffocation, choking, and strangulation were the second leading cause of unintentional injury death for children in Pitt County, ahead of drowning and poisoning. CPR can restore breathing and circulation until EMS arrives. This program aims to reduce child mortality in Pitt County and teach child caregivers how to save a child in case of an emergency.

date/time interval

  • October 2018 - December 2020