Background: This study explored the cardiac emergency preparedness of school employees in Illinois, as well as their attitudes toward cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) training.
Methods: One thousand two hundred seventy-six school employees completed an online survey regarding their school's cardiac emergency preparedness, as well as their access to CPR/AED training, confidence and willingness to perform CPR/AED, and attitudes toward CPR policies and mandates.
Results: In total, results from 1273 school employees were analyzed. School employees in Illinois are not prepared to respond to a cardiac emergency, but desire training, plans, and drills. Demographic analyses revealed statistically significant differences in cardiac emergency preparedness between individuals of different personal and school characteristics.
Conclusions: School employees in Illinois are not prepared to respond to a cardiac emergency. To increase preparedness for cardiac emergencies at school, schools should implement CPR/AED training for all employees, cardiac emergency response plans, and cardiac emergency response drills.
Implications for school health policy, practice, and equity: Policies should be implemented at the state and local level to support cardiac emergency preparedness in schools, including mandated CPR/AED training for all school employees, cardiac emergency response plans for every building, and required cardiac emergency response drills.
Keywords: AED; CPR; CPR training; cardiac emergency preparedness; schools.
© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of School Health published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American School Health Association.