Students from the College of Medical and Dental Sciences are doubling their efforts to deliver CPR training to festival-goers this summer by teaching people life-saving techniques at the V Festivals.
The #VShocks team, which is supported by Resuscitation for Medical Disciplines (RMD), will be at both festival sites (Weston Park and Hylands Park) from 18 to 21 August. After its debut success in 2016, the team aims to double the number of music lovers who learn more about CPR.
Axie Finch, medical student and #VShocks project student lead, said: 'We had a really successful debut at last year’s V Festival – we taught over 1,200 people. By covering both festival sites this year, we’re aiming to raise CPR awareness further still. We want to provide the public with life-long skills they can take away from the festival that could one day enable them to save a life.'
As in 2016, V Festival staff will be getting involved with the project and attending a teaching session. They have already remarked to the #VShocks team how important it is to "learn such a vital skill that could make a difference to someone’s life".
CPR is delivered when a person goes into cardiac arrest, becomes unconscious and stops breathing. Each year approximately 60,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of a hospital setting in the UK. Currently fewer than one in 10 people survive.
A significant reason behind the poor survival statistic is that the UK has a low rate of bystander CPR – where a member of the public starts CPR before the emergency services arrive. This delay in CPR reduces the chance that the person will be successfully resuscitated. For each minute delay in delivering CPR and defibrillation to a person in cardiac arrest, their chance of survival reduces by 10%.
The key to improving bystander CPR rate is to equip the public with the skills needed to perform CPR and to ensure they are confident to use them.
RMD is a University of Birmingham-affiliated organisation dedicated to CPR education. RMD train senior healthcare students to teach CPR to 750 university students each year.
In continuing its partnership with V Festival, RMD hopes to use this pioneering teaching project to educate as many members of the public as possible. RMD will be on-site at Weston Park and Hylands Park teaching CPR from Friday to Monday.