Aside from the beginning of classes, first-years also learned something else new this week—how to perform CPR.
Duke Emergency Medical Services offered CPR and AED training to first-years in their dorms Tuesday and Wednesday night. Junior Kevin Zheng, CPR Coordinator for Duke EMS, said that the group has had CPR initiatives for years, but that this is the first time they have brought trainings to first-years on this scale.
“We do regular trainings every year over on West Campus through Duke Sports, as well as through some sororities and fraternities,” Zheng said. “However, this year, we’re trying to branch out and do trainings for freshmen as well.”
Senior Ian Jaffe, assistant director of Duke EMS and video editor for The Chronicle, said that the trainings saw a large turnout.
“Over two nights, we trained 363 first-year students in bystander CPR,” Jaffe wrote in an email. “This is a little over 20 percent of the first-year class, meaning your average first year seminar should have at least a few people with a basic knowledge of CPR—which is fantastic!”
Students who attended these trainings found them to be useful. First-year Isabella Knox said that she found the training to be efficient and clear.
“It just felt good knowing how to save people,” first-year Annie Do added.
Zheng noted that the American Heart Association donated thousands of dollars of equipment that made the trainings possible.
Duke EMS Director Spencer Flynn, a senior, wrote in an email that he was excited to start this year with these CPR trainings.
“Our [emergency medical technicians] are always working to make campus safer, and it was great to see the Class of 2022 embrace this opportunity to learn life-saving skills,” Flynn wrote.
These CPR trainings come after a year of inactivity from Duke EMS. Last year, 911 calls were no longer dispatched to Duke EMS due to county regulations. This year, however, Duke EMS has a new partnership with Duke LifeFlight.
“We’re very excited about this new partnership,” Zheng said, adding that Duke EMS is staffing their first football game this Friday with LifeFlight.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.