Note: Your progress in watching these videos WILL NOT be tracked. These training videos are the same videos you will experience when you take the full ProPALS program. You may begin the training for free at any time to start officially tracking your progress toward your certificate of completion.
In this section, we're going to cover two-responder child CPR for the healthcare professional using a bag valve mask. (If you don't have a bag valve mask, a simple mask with a one-way valve will suffice.)
Pro Tip #1: When performing chest compressions on a large child, use two hands as you would for an adult. But when performing compressions on a smaller child, use just one hand to assure you're not compressing with too much force.
Pro Tip #2: The rate of compressions to rescue breaths changes during child CPR when two responders are present. Instead of performing 30 compressions to two rescue breaths, reduce the number of compressions to 15 for every two rescue breaths.
It's worth mentioning again – The assessment phase is similar to one-responder situations, however, while one of you is assessing the scene and patient, the other can get the equipment ready to perform CPR, try to locate an AED if one isn't present, call 911 or a code, etc. Once chest compressions begin, that's when the efforts of each responder will begin to coordinate, including the important switch at the two-minute mark.
The importance of having a fresh compressor cannot be overstated. Performing high-quality compressions will help bring the pulse pressure up as well as keeping the blood pressure as high as possible. Having two responders working together as a coordinated team will ensure the highest quality CPR gets delivered, which will give the patient the greatest chance of survival.
After making sure the scene is safe, that your gloves are on, and that you have your rescue mask with a one-way valve (or bag valve mask when there are two responders), begin calling out to the victim to assess whether or not the child is responsive.
Are you OK? Can you hear me?
If you don't get an initial response, place your hand on the child's forehead and tap on his or her collarbone. If you still do not get a response, proceed with the following steps.
Responder one:
Make sure you're directly over the victim's chest to maximize cardiac output, and not off to one side. If you're not directly over the chest, you may not adequately compress the heart.
Remember that counting out loud is even more important when two responders are working together. It allows the other responder to anticipate the delivery of rescue breaths and the all-important switching of duties.
Responder two:
Responder one:
Responder two:
Once you reach the two-minute mark, the responder performing chest compressions will call out switch, or the agreed upon word or phrase you'll be using to coordinate a switching of duties.
Responder two, after delivering two more rescue breaths, will hand the bag valve mask to responder one, walk around the patient and get into proper position, and begin performing chest compressions, while responder one prepares to administer rescue breaths using the bag valve mask.
Artificial ventilation is the method of forcing air into the lungs of a patient who is not breathing on their own. The oxygen in the ventilated air will be absorbed by blood flowing through the lungs and carried to the body's tissues and vital organs.
There are several ways to provide this ventilation, including:
Mouth to nose ventilation may be required if no ventilation equipment is present and if you are unable to create a proper seal over the patient's mouth.