Students from the University of Birmingham have formed a partnership with V Festival to deliver CPR training to members of the public as part of a project called #VShocks.

Vshocks

CPR is delivered when a person has a 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 ten 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.

Resuscitation for Medical Disciplines (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. Since RMD was established 21 years ago, 700 student teachers have been involved in delivering CPR training to over 10,000 students.

In forming a partnership with V festival RMD hope to teach as many members of the public as possible.

Lizzie McGeorge, the #VShocks project student lead, said, "We are aiming to raise CPR awareness and provide the public with lifelong skills which they can take away from the festival that could one day enable them to save a life.”

V festival staff have been getting involved with the project with 65 attending a teaching session this week. Members of staff remarked how important it was to 'learn such a vital skill that could make a difference to someone’s life'. 

RMD will be onsite at Weston Park teaching CPR from Friday to Sunday. When people have been trained in CPR they can put their skills to the test by entering the #VShocks CPR challenge for a chance to win a pair of tickets to V festival 2017.