Train more people to save more lives : Teaching Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) in compulsory schools in Sweden

Abstract: Globally, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurs ranging between 20 to 140 per 100 000 people, with only 2-11% surviving. Immediate bystanders, i.e. a person close to the victim, performing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) have a vital role to play in the chain of survival from OHCA. Today CPR training takes place in many different contexts as workplaces and schools, but there is still a lack of knowledge concerning CPR in society at large. The overarching aim for this thesis is to find new ways of delivering CPR in order to train more laypeople and save more lives. By initially exploring CPR training in both workplaces and compulsory schools in Sweden, my final design question for this thesis has been: How might we empower the teachers to enable them to carry out CPR training at school? Ethnographic fieldwork both exploring CPR training in workplaces and schools including interviews with mainly instructors, teachers, and laypeople as well as participatory observations in CPR training, have been carried out. In addition, the fieldwork included being a participant in a CPR training course myself. The results from my research process were clustered into insights and potential opportunity areas. Departing from these insights a decision was made to continue the thesis with CPR training in schools as reaching out to children and young people already at school can open the path for more long-term sustainable knowledge. Despite CPR training being core content from year 7 in compulsory schools in Sweden, it is not carried out in a majority of them. My research shows that lack of CPR material as well as an unclear syllabus in Physical Education and Health in how to involve CPR in your teaching, are some of the main obstacles for teachers and reasons for why CPR training is not being carried out in every school today. Potential future scenarios were explored through creative workshops and idea sessions with the users and main stakeholders. The explorations led to focusing on the teachers, as they have a vital role in being the bridge between the CPR knowledge and the pupils. My final proposal is CiPRA: a collaborative CPR education platform for teachers and schools, with the aim to increase the knowledge and the conditions for teachers to carry out CPR training, starting already from six years of age. The structure of the platform follows the years of the Swedish school system and the recommended steps fromThe Swedish Resuscitation Council for CPR training and first aid. The platform enables teachers to plan and prepare CPR training, both long a short term irrespective of previous experience. The platform is based on three main parts; knowledge contributions from teachers, teaching content both through pre-made lessons and an idea bank as well as a shared booking system for practical CPR material. Together these parts unify in an individual lesson planning for every teacher. In my final design proposal, it has been important to emphasise the main insights as well as making sure that every involved stakeholder is represented.