So last month I went along to renew my first aider skills in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). I think the first aid certificate is every three years, and CPR is every 12 months. I was pleased to see the same trainer as last time and he seemed to remember me (or at least recognised that I had attended his class previously).
It was a smaller class than last year, but we were all there only for the CPR, not the full first aid course. About 7 or 8 people in the class. As an icebreaker we each explained to the class why we were there. Everyone except me was employed in work that required them to keep their CPR certification up to date. I explained simply that I wanted to keep my skills sharp in case I was in a situation where they were needed, and chances are that it would be for someone I cared about. This last point had really been driven into me in the class last year.
Most of the others were health workers who had done CPR classes many times before, and even administered CPR in real life, in one case. We had an initial practice run before the lesson began and not one of us got the technique absolutely right. This was an important lesson for us all and at the end of the class, the trainer told us to reflect on what went wrong in that initial run, to help reinforce the correct technique. In my case, I completely forgot about needing to tilt back the head to open the airway after checking it is clear. Even now I catch myself reflecting on this. Brilliant trainer.