January 6, 2004

CHICAGO (American Academy of Pediatrics) -- School officials should establish an emergency response plan to deal with life-threatening medical emergencies, just as they do for tornadoes or fires, according to the new policy statement, "Response to Cardiac Arrest and Selected Life-Threatening Medical Emergencies: The Medical Emergency Response Plan for Schools." The statement is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and several other public health organizations.

Life-threatening emergencies can occur in any school, at any time. They can be caused by preexisting health problems, violence, injuries, and other unexpected events. They can affect students, or the adults who teach and supervise them. At the same time, schools now employ fewer nurses than ever before, leaving teachers, coaches and other staff in charge of first aid before the arrival of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel. Yet in one recent Midwestern survey, a third of teachers had no training in first aid, and almost half had never completed a course in CPR.

The policy statement recommends the following core elements of a school medical emergency response plan be enacted in all schools:

• Effective and efficient communication between the school campus, EMS personnel and other important emergency contact people (i.e., parents).
• A coordinated response plan that is practiced and evaluated throughout the year.
• Risk reduction, including injury prevention programs.
• Training and equipment for first aid and CPR, including classes for teachers, staff and at minimum, graduating high school students.

This statement was written to address both the need for school medical emergency planning and to address questions raised by the recent publicity and unfunded legislation requiring schools to acquire an automated external defibrillator (AED). The statement makes the point that schools should not focus on a piece of equipment such as an AED, which may only have the potential to help in a small percentage of occurrences. Rather, schools should focus on more important and more common events through comprehensive school medical emergency planning as outlined in the statement.

This American Heart Association policy statement is endorsed by the AAP, American College of Emergency Physicians, National Association of School Nurses, National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, National Association of State EMS Directors, National Association of EMS Physicians, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Disaster Preparedness.