Classes finished... again

    For two evenings this week my wife and I attended classes to retrain on the American Heart Association method of CPR and First Aid.  It was not difficult nor was it unpleasant though, as it often has been in the past, it was a little slow.  I found the Heart Association class to be a fairly low stress affair after my experiences taking the Red Cross classes (CPR for the Professional Rescuer) when I was certified as a Life Guard.  Red Cross classes involved far more hands on application and more rigorous testing (including a fairly difficult written knowledge test that the Heart Association does not have at all).

    Clearly the Heart Association and the Red Cross (at least as I remember it) have vastly differing approaches to learning this.  On the other hand, the Red Cross class I took was for people who were expected to react instantly and to get it right the first time (lifeguards, firefighters, etc.) while the Heart Association class was really for foster parents and day care providers for whom, while the knowledge is important, what is needed first and foremost is enough knowledge to give them confidence so that they can provide care and call for professional care. After teaching for the Red Cross for more than two decades, my wife was unimpressed but I suppose both approaches are valid and have their place.

    In any case, our task for now is to turn in proof that we took the classes and then wait for our fire inspection in two weeks.  After that we're done and we wait some more for our new therapeutic foster home license to be approved.