Friday, July 7, 2017

1st Aid/CPR - Be Prepared to Save Someone's Life!

Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees, 

When was the last time you took a 1st Aid/CPR course?  Most 1st Aid/CPR cards expire in either a 1 or 2 year period.  Why should you consider taking a 1st Aid/CPR course?  You never know when you may be a bystander near someone going into cardiac arrest.  This may occur at home, work or in a public setting and if you are prepared, you can Save Someone's Life!  

Did you know that sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death in the United States? Unfortunately, most people who suffer a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital do not get cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from a bystander, which significantly lessens their chances of survival. CPR is easy to learn, and is taught to tens of thousands of people each year.  CPR saves lives.  More than 300,000 people have cardiac arrests in the United States every year.  Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when an electrical rhythm problem occurs and the heart is no longer able to pump blood effectively to the rest of the body. You might see a person suddenly collapse, lose consciousness, and stop breathing. The longer the body goes without circulation, the lower the chance of survival. By performing CPR, you are able to help the person’s blood keep circulating until an ambulance arrives and more advanced tools can be used.  We know that the chance of surviving a sudden cardiac arrest increases significantly, by more than double, when CPR is started early.

We are encouraging all of our employees to take a 1st Aid/CPR course to help put you in a position to make a difference in someone’s life. 

If you have completed a 1st Aid/CPR course within the past 2 years and if you have not provided a copy of your 1st Aid/CPR card to our Safety Director, please do so by taking a picture of both sides of your card and emailing it to our Safety Director, Peter Graham at pgraham@4idi.com

Just a reminder that we also provide our employees with safety incentive points under our Volunteer Safety Training Incentive Program.  For each safety course an employee takes outside of our own I.D.I. volunteer quarterly safety meetings, an employee earns 100 points per hour for each hour of the safety training course.  So, if you voluntarily complete a 1st Aid/CPR course and if the course happens to be a 4-hour course, you would earn 400 points for our current volunteer safety training incentive year.  Then, in December of 2017, we will mail a letter to you explaining your accumulative safety training incentive points total along with a catalog so you can redeem your points for I.D.I. work wearables and many other items.  Please just remember that after you complete a safety training course outside of I.D.I., to take a photos of your safety training certificate or card and e-mail it to pgraham@4idi.com along with how many hours long the course was so we can keep track of your incentive points. 

The following is a list of some upcoming 1st Aid/CPR courses at the union trade schools.  If you are interested, please contact your union trade school to get enrolled:

Chicago Carpenters  -   Monday, 7/17/17 in Rockford
                                      Saturday, 8/19/17 in Chicago on Union Ave.
                                      Saturday, 9/16/17 in Elk Grove

District Council 14  –  Saturday, 7/15/17
                                   Saturday, 8/19/17
                                   Saturday, 9/30/17

District Council 30  –  Saturday, 10/21/17

If you have any questions about this article or safety in general, please contact our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689. 

Have a Safe Day!