USCG Captain License First Aid & CPR Certification
This course page keeps class dates and booking first while describing the practical emergency recognition skills covered in CPR, AED, and first aid training.
Current Guideline Focus
- Choking response follows the current pattern: adults and children receive 5 back blows and 5 abdominal thrusts; infants receive 5 back blows and 5 chest thrusts.
- Opioid emergency response includes recognizing respiratory arrest, activating EMS, using naloxone when available, and giving CPR with breaths when breathing is absent or abnormal. Hands-only CPR is not always enough in opioid emergencies.
- Stroke recognition uses FAST and urgent EMS activation, and stroke should not be framed as something that only affects older adults.
- Seizure response includes protecting from injury, not restraining the person, placing nothing in the mouth, and calling EMS for prolonged, repeated, first-time, injured, breathing-compromised, water-related, pregnant, diabetic, or febrile seizure concerns.
- Asthma support includes helping with the person's prescribed bronchodilator, using a spacer when available, and understanding that an improvised spacer may help when a standard spacer is not available.
- Environmental and outdoor first aid includes rapid cooling for severe heat illness, ice water immersion when available, safe rewarming for cold exposure, and avoiding harmful warming methods.
- Additional practical topics can include ticks, stings, burns, eye injuries, poison ivy/oak exposure, and pulse oximetry limitations.