More Than 27,000 from Across the Region Attended Courses in 2011
Do you know what to do whensomebody’s heart stops beating?How to stop a cut from bleeding?When to call 911?
If not, but you’d like to know, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Community Training Center (CTC) can help.
The center provides instruction in a range of life-saving skills – including first aid, hands-only and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (CPR), advanced cardiac life support, pediatric advanced life support and blood-borne pathogen safety – to individuals, groups, businesses and other organizations throughout the region. Last year, 27,813 people received training in CTC courses, an increase of more than 20 percent over 2010.
“Our goal is to increase survival rates across the board through continuing education in all segments of the community,” said Kathy Nelson, R.N., the CTC coordinator. “Improving the health of our region is part of the medical center’s mission and we feel we’re making a major contribution to that initiative.”
The Community Training Center conducts classes for Wake Forest Baptist employees through the medical center’s Life Support Education program. But the vast majority of the CTC’s instruction takes place at its satellite training centers – located in Winston-Salem (Forsyth Technical Community College), Statesville (Iredell Memorial Hospital), Elkin (Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital), Mount Airy (Northern Hospital of Surry County), Salisbury (Hefner VA Medical Center) and Raleigh (North Carolina State Highway Patrol) – and on-site at churches, community centers, fire departments, schools, offices, factories and other venues both large and small.
The courses are taught by approximately 800 certified instructors based throughout the region. About half of these are members of the staff at Wake Forest Baptist, including physicians, registered nurses, certified nurse assistants, respiratory therapists and other health care professionals.
The CTC also has a faculty of 48 experienced experts who serve two-year terms monitoring both new instructors and those requiring certification renewals.
The fees for basic CTC courses range between $35 and $55 for individuals but are pro-rated for groups. Fees also may be waived if organizations meet certain criteria.
“We try to make the courses as accessible as possible in terms of location, timing and cost because we truly believe these are things that just about everybody should know,” said Nelson, who has been a nurse for 19 years, including 12 on Wake Forest Baptist’s AirCare helicopter. “I know from personal experience that people who know CPR and other first-aid techniques can really be life savers.”
Additional information about the Community Training Center and its courses can be obtained by calling (336) 716-6847 or sending an email to knelson@wakehealth.edu.
Media Relations
Megan Lee: news@wakehealth.edu, 336-713-4587