Teaching CPR at community sporting events
Emerging Leaders in Health Promotion grant program
Dr. May Choi was encouraged by the high level of participation and interesting survey results from her first rollout of “Teaching CPR at community sport events,” which was included in the 2014-15 group of Emerging Leaders in Health Promotion (ELiHP) grant program projects. She undertook round two of the ELiHP project at six community sport events from 2016 to 2018 with her 2016-17 ELiHP project co-applicants: Bachelor of Health Science graduate John Choi and Drs. Michael Bosch, Barry Congdon, Alexandra Frolkis, Benjamin Gershkovich, Michael Gozdzik, Rachel Lim, Erin Miller, Melissa Morgunov, Natalie Morgunov and William Stokes.
Dr. Choi and her team, with a new automated CPR mannequin (Resusci Anne® QCPR) and an automated external defibrillator (AED), took their CPR tutorial on the road to sport events around Calgary, such as the Zombie Race, Race for Pace, the Calgary Police Half-Marathon and the Kimmett Cup. While achieving their primary goal of reaching out to athletes, their families, friends and coaches at sport events — targeting athletes who may be at risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCAs) due to conditions like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy – they also achieved significant exposure and education of the general public to their CPR/AED teachings.
“By setting up at well-attended, popular sport events, we were able to involve the spectators as well as the sport participants,” explains Dr. Choi. “Our objectives were to educate the community in how to act in the event of a cardiac arrest emergency (including how to perform CPR/AED), to increase public awareness of SCAs and ways to stay heart healthy, and to promote professional and community leadership development in medical trainees using the LEADS framework.”
