First Aid and CPR
What the exam tests
First Aid and CPR tests immediate life-saving actions: CPR, AED, choking, severe bleeding, and overdose. ND items are practical: what you do first, and what you do not do.
Core rules
- Scene safety first; put on gloves and use a barrier device. Activate EMS and assign someone to get the AED.
- Adult CPR: check responsiveness and breathing, call 911, start compressions at 100 to 120 per minute, depth 2 to 2.4 inches, full recoil, 30 compressions to 2 breaths. Use hands-only CPR if you are unwilling or unable to ventilate.
- AED: apply pads to a bare, dry chest, follow prompts, and resume compressions immediately after a shock. Do not delay compressions to shave a hairy chest.
- Choking: encourage coughing; if the airway is fully obstructed, give abdominal thrusts and alternate with back blows for a responsive adult.
- Severe bleeding: apply direct pressure, then a tourniquet 2 to 3 inches above the wound, not over a joint, and tighten until bleeding stops. Note the time.
- Opioid overdose: give naloxone and support breathing; naloxone does not replace CPR.
- Chest trauma: use an occlusive dressing for a sucking chest wound and monitor for worsening breathing.
Worked example
An officer finds a man unresponsive in a parked car with a needle nearby. The officer ensures scene safety, checks breathing, gives naloxone, and begins rescue breathing with a barrier device. The man's breathing improves but he remains unresponsive. The officer places him in the recovery position, monitors, and turns him over to EMS. The officer does not assume naloxone cures the overdose; the airway and breathing remain the priority.
Traps
- Spending too long checking a pulse instead of starting compressions.
- Putting a tourniquet on a joint or loosening it to check.
- Forgetting to note the tourniquet time.
- Using an AED on a wet chest without drying it.