Just when I started to like the ARC again...

[mycrofft]

I'm lining up to teach AED and CPR refresher to law enforcement officers and about to get my certificate to instruct cadets. To make myself more authoritative and hireable etc., I signed up for the precursor class for the ARC CPR/AED instructor certificate. After two botched attempts and $35 down the tubes, I took it..then found out half way through that full day of class I needed to take a second day for the class, and that there were two more precursor classes to go before I could take the instructor certification class; and that if I passed, I would be required to sign a noncompetition agreement: never teach classes under the ARC rate and to always buy my materials from them. Reading, but not signing, this agreement was part of the class I took, called FIT. Four other students (half the class) were likewise unprepared for this.
I am assuaging myself by using the ARC performance standards and will keep current on the latest, but since the contractee (law enforcement agency) does not require certificated officers, the contractor (my soon future boss) does not furnish one.
FIT was instructional about how to instruct adults, but once again I and my fellow clasmates ran into obfuscatory materials and a "big dog" attitude. "YAY' to my instructor and the volunters, "NAY" to well-paid, institutionalized do-gooders writ large.

 

[DT4EMS]

Your issues are not uncommon at all. Pretty much every organization you "instruct" for will have rules/regulations that are similar.

Personally I have instructed for AHA and ARC. In the grand scheme of things I like the ARC a little better. Remember the ARC follows the standards of the AHA who does the major research.

Every instructor course you attend will have the "adult learner" portion all over again.

The books and fees are a simple logic that boils down to legalities. The most important is " I didn't know that" or "I was never taught that". Both of those can be defended by the organization offering books as a resource after the class.

Even the AHA requires participants of a course to have access to the materials ahead of time to prepare and the ability to have the books/manuals as a resource after a course.

Good luck on your endeavor. Don't get too frustrated.

Kip

 

[mycrofft]

Not to worry. ARC still is a great resource when the fan meets the byproducts.

Yeah, the issues are not complex (although in days gone by, or maybe even today, the AHA and ARC would seemingly differ in their CPR approaches just enough to be seperately branded, the "Heimlich Maneuver" being a case in point), but it also effectively puts a lock on the field. Rather like not being able to nurse except at the hospital whose nursing college I graduated from.
I'm just coming to see the subculture of CPR instructors here who lend each other materials, find each other gigs, etc. One woman has coralled thirty (!!) current design manikins through horse trading and knowing who has given up.
Thanks for the comment!!
PS: The course materials were from 2000, and were handed out at the class.

 

[Chimpie]

I'm just coming to see the subculture of CPR instructors here who lend each other materials, find each other gigs, etc. One woman has coralled thirty (!!) current design manikins through horse trading and knowing who has given up.

I didn't understand any of that. :unsure:

 

[mycrofft]

OK here 'tis . Thanks, Chimpie

Current manikins:not moldy old ones which do not meet current safety and performance standards.
Corralled thirty of them (!!): these babies are not cheap. That's thousands of dollars' worth.
Horsetrading and knowing who's giving up: she trades manikins, gets other materials or covers classes for folks, and when someone with their own manikin wants to throw in the towel at making a living at it, she's ready to help them out. Out of CPR training.