Anyone can have the option of saving the life of a person who suffers a cardiac arrest, which is why it is crucial to disseminate among the population the knowledge on cardiopulmonary resuscitation manoeuvres. This is the understanding of UCAM, whose president, José Luis Mendoza, a few months ago, approved a project led by Manuel Pardo, according to whom “if we manage to introduce in our educative system this training in a stable manner, someday we will have a society a lot more prepared to help those who suffer a cardiac arrest in the street”.

In fact, “the countries who invested effort in training children in CPR are obtaining the best results in the recovery of persons who suffer a cardiac arrest when outside from the healthcare setting”, explains Pardo, professor and researcher of UCAM Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, and nurse expert in emergencies.

In the next 2021-22 academic year, UCAM will start to offer training in CPR to its entire university community, including the students of all its degrees, the professors, researchers and the administration and services staff, at all training levels (bachelor’s degree, post-graduate programme, PhD and Higher Vocational Training). This action will be carried out as well in the five schools of the Alma Mater Foundation (including the parents) and in the sports clubs of the university entity. Training will be provided in online mode, through the virtual campus, and face-to-face sessions will be organised.

From the age of 3 

Within the framework of the project, a video addressed to children aged 3 to 12 has been made, which will be used in the schools of the Foundation and will be offered to the educative and health authorities for free in case they want to share it with their teachers and students. The lyrics explains the steps to be followed in CPR and the rhythm of the music is the one that must be followed during chest compressions (from 100 to 120 per minute). María Trinidad Pérez and the famous Rody Aragón (son of Alfonso Aragón, ‘Fofó’) sing the song and the artistic director is José Ramón Soler, UCAM professor, music producer and guitar player. Musicians and healthcare professionals participated in the recording, some of which belong to the Murcia 061 Emergency Care Management. The initiatives for the dissemination of CPR among children called ‘Jacinto y sus Amigos’ and ‘RCP desde mi Cole’ collaborated as well.

The initiative is framed within the Project “Aplicación de nuevas tecnologías y cambios de los paradigmas en la formación en reanimación cardiopulmonar y primeros auxilios en niños de edad escolar” [Application of new technologies and changes of paradigms in CPR and first aid training among children of school age], which aims at highlighting the importance of using innovative tools so that teachers and students can learn the most important concepts. The song is included in the Doctoral Thesis that is being developed by María Trinidad Pérez at UCAM, which is supervised by doctors Juan José González and Manuel Pardo.