Health x Wellness
SHF launches first female CPR manikin vest for use in Singapore
The Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF) launched the female CPR manikin vest to increase awareness for education of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on women. This customised female CPR manikin vest fits most manikins in the market and is the first of its kind in Singapore.
According to the 2020 “Knowledge, Attitude and Practice survey on CPR+AED” commissioned by SHF and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), about 60 respondents out of 1,003 respondents (6 percent) shared that they might not perform CPR on a stranger as they feared being accused of molest.
CPR+AED training is taught traditionally with CPR manikins of a male physique, priming trained lifesavers to be familiar with performing CPR on males compared to females.
Coupled with the fear of committing an outrage of modesty on a woman’s chest or inflicting injury on female cardiac arrest casualties, the gender gap in life-saving widens. This proves that there is an urgent need for education on CPR+AED to be effectively administered on women, and not just men, to lower the mental barriers to save a life.
However, about one-third of the nearly 3,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) that occur in Singapore every year are women. With every minute that nothing is done to resuscitate the victim, chances of survival drop by 7 to 10%
Given the OHCA scenario, it is important that bystanders are equipped with the right mindset and techniques in effectively administering CPR+AED on women to help prevent death due to cardiac arrest.
This training aid will be used in SHF’s CPR+AED (Automated External Defibrillator) training programmes distributed to around 60 accredited CPR+AED training centres.
In the course of our trainings, we often receive queries from participants on the issue of performing CPR+AED on female casualties, due to sensitivity of touching and exposing the female chest during the resuscitation process. With this female CPR manikin vest, participants can be accustomed to doing chest compressions around the female breasts and learn how to paste the AED pads without exposing the woman’s chest. To be frank, in such a life and death moment, no amount of embarrassment is worth refraining from saving a life. If I were to suffer cardiac arrest one day, please give me CPR!.
Ms Denise Ng, Singapore Heart Foundation CPR+AED Chief Instructor.
SHF has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ITE on the opening of the Spark Fitness Hub to jointly organise CPR and life-saving related events to promote heart health and CPR+AED training. Interested individuals can be certified in CPR+AED, BCLS+AED, SFA+AED at the ITE College West campus, or be educated on how to administer CPR using the CPR self-learning kiosks that are located within the Spark Fitness Hub.
Image credit: Singapore Heart Foundation
