Teaching students, lecturers and staff from the Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, the schools of its Fundación Alma Mater and members of its sports clubs how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator is the aim of the training programme ‘Aprendiendo juntos a salvar vidas’ (Learning to save lives together), implemented following the agreement signed by the Universidad Católica de Murcia and Fundación MAPFRE. The aim is to ensure that as many people as possible know how to react to cardiac arrest in an out-of-hospital setting waiting for the health services to arrive. The free course, developed in collaboration with the Spanish Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Council, consists of theoretical training, which is already available online through the UCAM Virtual Campus, and practical training, given in person.

The agreement was signed by María Dolores García, UCAM President, and Antonio Guzmán, Director of Health Promotion at Fundación MAPFRE, who emphasised that the aim is to ‘train as many people as possible, and to have a multiplier effect, so that those with degrees in Education or in the field of health can also teach other people’.

The event was also attended by the UCAM Vice-Dean, Manuel Pardo, who is leading the project. ‘If we manage to implement this training in our education system on a stable basis, one day we will have a society that is much better prepared to help someone who suffers a cardiac arrest in the street,’ he said.