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Business Advice

The Ultimate CPR Instructor Guide & Help

December 13, 2022 By Lisa Brown

The Ultimate CPR Instructor Guide & Help

Teaching CPR and other health safety education classes can be relatively easy and fun. However, the rubber meets the road when you step outside of the classroom to keep your business running. There is a lot to learn and a lot to remember. To help CPR instructors spend more time in the classroom doing what they love, we have compiled this guide to point you to the answers you need. Here you will find CPR instructor help for legal, business, administration, equipment, credentialing, and teaching help.

Legal Framework

  • Legal Considerations
    • Video
  • What licenses do I need?
    • Generally, you will need to file for an EIN and get a state business license as well as a city and county business license.
      • Article 
    • Apply for your EIN directly through the IRS. You will need this before getting a business license or any bank accounts.
      • Apply for EIN here.
  • Should I be an LLC or Sole Proprietor?
    • Many business owners start out as sole proprietors because it’s simple. Minimal paperwork is required and there’s no big outlay of cost. This is attractive for new entrepreneurs, particularly those testing a business idea. Taxes are also simpler and cost less for sole proprietors.
    • However, the rubber hits the road as your business starts growing. A sole proprietorship structure offers no legal protection for your personal assets, so you could end up personally bankrupt if your business doesn’t succeed as planned. LLC owners, on the other hand, aren’t personally liable for business debts. LLC’s also offer tax flexibility. Most LLC owners stick with pass-through taxation, which is how sole proprietors are taxed. However, you can choose corporate tax status for your LLC if doing so will save you money. Every state recognizes the LLC structure to encourage small business growth. The best business structure for you will depend on many factors, and it’s best to consult a business lawyer before making this decision. However, due to the combination of liability protection and tax flexibility, an LLC is often a great fit for a small business owner.
  • What insurance do I need?
    • There are more than just one type of insurance policy. There is General liability, Professional liability, Business liability, Workmen’s Comp liability, etc. Find a broker who will educate you about the different types of insurance, and one who will shop out rates from several agencies.

Business Framework & Help

  • How Much does it cost to start a CPR business?
    • Article
    • Video
  • How to start a CPR business and create a business model.
    • Article
    • Video
  • How to Set up a CPR Business Website.
    • Video
  • How do I advertise or market my business?
    • Article
    • Article
  • How do I price my classes?
    • Video
  • What do I put in business contracts?
    • Article
  • How do I hire employees or contractors?
    • Article
  • How do I handle class rescheduling or cancellations?
    • Article
  • How to apply for Government & Large Contracts
    • Article

Administration

  • How do I buy certification cards?
    • Article
  • How do I send certification cards?
    • Article
    • Video
  • How do I edit certification cards?
    • Video

Equipment

  • What equipment do I need?
    • Video
  • How do I replace lung bags in Prestan Manikins?
    • Article
  • Where to buy Epi Pen Trainers
    • Article
  • How to Make Reusable First Aid Training Kits
    • Video

heartsaver cpr aed ecard

Instructor Accreditation / Credentialing

  • How to Become a CPR Instructor
    • Article: How to Become a BLS Instructor
    • Article: How to Become a CPR Trainer
    • Article: The Difference Between a BLS & Heartsaver Instructor
  • How much does it cost to become a CPR instructor.
    • Article
  • How to become a CPR Instructor Trainer
    • Article
  • How to renew your CPR Instructor Certification
    • Article
  • How to get your CPR card as a CPR instructor
    • A CPR Instructor certification trumps a CPR Provider certification. However, some jobs may require the certificate anyways. CPR instructors can request a certification card that is dated the same as their last instructor monitoring or when they become an instructor.
  • How do I become an AHA Training Center?
    • Article
  • How to Align with our Training Center
    • Article

Teaching & Instruction Help

  • How do I prepare for my first class?
    • Article
  • Best Classes to Offer in a CPR Business
    • Article
    • Video 
  • How do I offer Bloodeborne Pathogen’s Training?
    • Article
    • Video

More Resources

We hope to help you in your CPR business and mission to save lives through quality education. Please reach out and let us know if you have more questions and we will do our best to connect you with the information you need.

Youtube Channels

Visit the CPR Instructor Affiliates Youtube channel here for more content.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Business Advice, How To

CPR Instructor Mistakes & Lessons

October 25, 2022 By Lisa Brown

We’re in the business of saving lives. CPR classes have been available to the public for over 50 years now. Resuscitation rates have increased over time, however they are not where they should be. When reflecting on this, we must examine CPR instructor mistakes and the lessons we can learn from them.

The reality is that 50 years of CPR education isn’t that much. When it comes to advances in our medical understandings, there are long periods of trial and error. Every 5 years the Emergency Cardiovascular Care Update (ECCU) is published and reveals new changes to the way we perform CPR. Many people don’t realize that CPR has changed over time and unfortunately this sometimes includes CPR instructors.

The American Heart Association and American Red Cross have both largely tasked designated Training Centers as responsible for quality assurance in their training programs. These Training Centers must monitor and ensure their instructors follow the guidelines of course administration. (Read: Top Three CPR Instructor Mistakes) However, in an industry where growth and need for this training has exploded, it has been an ever changing environment to figure out how to ensure quality is not compromised.

Let’s discuss the top three lessons you should learn from instructors who made some big mistakes.

CPR Instructor Lesson #1. No one gets a certification card without attending a class.

The number one thing that gets CPR instructors in trouble, is giving certifications to students who did not attend training. This is a fast way to not only lose your CPR Instructor certification, but be put under review by your medical licensing board. In short, this kind of action is fraud and can be prosecuted.

It’s actually quite concerning the number of doctors who haven’t taken a CPR certification class in the last decade. If they’re a doctor they know who to do CPR right?! Wrong. The ‘good ole boy system’ has made people feel like it’s okay to hand out CPR certifications to people who have taken CPR a million times before or do CPR regularly. However, this is one of the biggest mistakes being made in the medical field. In fact, oftentimes it’s found that the CPR students who struggle the most are the ones who have been previously certified. They often fall back to outdated practices and are discouraged from learning the latest guidelines.

Giving certifications to students who didn’t attend a class can be costly. It could even cost someones life when a certified person fails to respond… because they don’t know how. It can also cost your career as an instructor and your medical license. In 2022, a Miami firefighter was charged with a 3rd degree felony for ‘Organized Scheme to Defraud.’ (Read story here.) In this case, the State Attorney said

“Falsification of any certification always has the potential of placing people in danger. However, falsifications of training in life-saving techniques creates an obvious risk if a life-or-death situation arises, something these certifications were intended to avoid.”

This story is not unique. In 2021, a Washington State man confessed to selling fake CPR certifications to people who did not receive training. In this case, the District Attorney asserted that people bearing these certification cards could also be prosecuted. (Read: Fort Bend County man char

ged with selling fake CPR certifications to hundreds of healthcare workers.)

If you are ever pressured by someone to give them a CPR certification card without them attending class, do not do it! While some CPR instructor’s have made this mistake and some people think it’s the norm, it should not be a practice furthered.

CPR Instructor Lesson #2. Students use the latest textbooks and course videos.

Cardiovascular Resuscitation guidelines are updated every five years. Generally, so are all course materials including course videos and printed material. Unfortunately, sometimes instructors are not made aware of this by their Training Center or they try to save money by not buying the new stuff. Using old materials and issuing the new course completion cards is incompatible and gross error.

The AHA PAM stipulates that “Each AHA course must follow the guidelines and core curriculum in the most current editions of the course textbook or Instructor Manual. Current editions of AHA course materials must serve as the primary training resource during the course.”

There have been significant changes to CPR and content in just the last decade. Teaching anything other than the latest curriculum is less than effective and means your students did not earn the latest certification they need. In cases finding this error made, the AHA has revoked certification cards and made people retake the training.

CPR Instructor Lesson #3. The appropriate certification cards are always issued.

When copyrighted materials are used for instruction, it comes with guidelines that must be adhered to. For starters, you typically can not photocopy any copyrighted material.

Prior to 2017, CPR certifications were issued on paper certification cards that were purchased through the copyrighted brand. Each certification card cost precious dollars. It was not uncommon to see these blank certification cards photocopied and then students information populated. However, these cards are considered fraudulent and in violation of copyright law. In some really bad cases, there are stories of Training Centers that would sell these photocopied cards to instructors instead of sending the legitimate certification cards.

Once, I had an instructor ask if I would buy the certification cards back that their previous Training Center had sold them. The instructor showed me a printed stack of certification cards that were photocopied twice over and even a little crooked. This was a gross issue of integrity as it was clear individuals were pocketing the costs that should have been used to buy the legitimate product. I think it would be fair to say that people doing this were not CPR Instructors making mistakes, but instead people intentionally trying to skirt the rules.

To combat this issue, the AHA and Red Cross have made their certifications digital. They are both issued with unique QR codes that prove their validity. This hasn’t stopped all people from faking certifications. However, it has cut down on the issue substantially. (Read more: How to Spot Fake CPR Certifications)

Another note on issuing certification cards for courses copyrighted through the AHA and Red Cross is that the organizations both stipulate students who complete a course must be issued a course completion card. This means that even if someone doesn’t want or need a certification, the instructor is still obligated to provide them with it. According to the AHA Program Administration Manual (PAM): “Each student who successfully completes an AHA ECC course must be issued the appropriate course completion card unless prohibited by local or state statutes or regulations.”

In 2008, a California hospital system was under scrutiny for having found virtually all of their employees had received fraudulent cards. (Read story: Hospital Faulted in Fake CPR Cards Case) Even though most all of them said they completed training, their physical certification cards were not legitimate. This incident resulted in 59 employees being fired. The staff with medical licenses were then reported to the state licensure board for discipline.

AHA Fraud Warning

The American Heart Association keeps a webpage up to date with the latest fraud warnings. They are constantly working to make sure training is done legitimately. Warnings like this and others can be viewed on the AHA website here.

Conclusion

Do it right the first time. The cost of these errors is far from small. The reality is that most of these ‘mistakes’ are not ‘mistakes’ at all but gross misconduct. CPR instructors are in the business of saving lives and integrity in this pursuit is vital. Remember that any of your students could one day be responsible for saving the life of one of your loved ones.

Watch: How to Know if Your AED is Still Working

 

Filed Under: Business Advice

CPR Business Help: How to Handle Class Rescheduling & Cancellations

September 21, 2022 By Lisa Brown

Big sigh. We all know the feeling of a last minute cancellation or rescheduling in our CPR business. Maybe you’ve had an instructor move their day around to accommodate teaching a private class and now you have to call them and tell them it’s cancelled. The instructor has already loaded up their vehicle with equipment. The client now needs to reschedule and you’ll go through the process again. This administrative time costs and there’s also the cost of business you turned away to schedule a client.

At the same time, we all know life happens and we care intently about our clients at Vitali Partners. We look to serve our clients and hope they find us as accommodating whenever we can be. Let’s discuss how we can accommodate people while also responsibly operating a CPR business.

Contracts & Terms of Service

Contract

First, let’s cover the basics. You can make up any rules you want and on the go. However, when push comes to shove and you are talking to a credit card company or lawyer, you will need a contract or Terms of Service to point them to.

Generally, most CPR business’s have two types of clients. There are individual and business/corporate clients.

For the general public (individuals), you should have Terms of Service. When an individual books a class with you it’s ideal that they pay up front and agree to your terms of service. You can set the terms of service as you would like. The terms of service should include your rescheduling policy, cancellation policy, and any video or photography waivers.

For corporate clients, we always recommend having a contract in place. This contract does not need to be overly complicated. A contract should be simple and enforceable. Having your business’s lawyer read over and refine the contract is best practice. Many people will fill contracts with items that are not able to be upheld. Your contract should state straightforward. It should include details about when payment is due, how much they are paying, how you handle changes in number of attendants, and what your rescheduling or cancellation policy is.

If you are interested in learning more about government contracts, read our article here.

Rescheduling

There are many reasons a client may need to reschedule a class with your CPR business. In the event of illness, bad weather, schedule changes, or family emergencies people may need to change the date of their training. For every legitimate reason, there are also other reasons that are less understandable. We suggest having a policy that protects your business. However, we also recommend using the policy at your discretion.

Your rescheduling policy may vary between corporate clients and individuals. For individuals, we suggest allowing free rescheduling up to 24 hours in advance. You will need to choose what makes the most sense for your business based on how you compensate your contractors and employees effected. After the free rescheduling window, you may charge a fee to move their class registration. We recommend the rescheduling be 50% the cost of tuition.

Why charge a rescheduling fee? People that sign up for a class and move their registration last minute may have taken a seat from another student. Often, our classes are full and our students have to sign up for a class at a later date. If people are allowed to reschedule for free, then that means you can end up with an empty seat last minute and take away a seat from what would have been another paying student in your next class. A rescheduling fee allows you to recoup a margin of what would otherwise have been lost to your CPR business

Cancellations

Furthermore, we care intently about our instructors. When they make time in their schedule to teach for us, we intend to pay them regardless if students cancel. If a student cancels last minute, we reserve the right to not refund them so we can cover our cost to pay the instructor. This is always stated up front in our Terms of Service or Contract. Without our instructors, a CPR business can not run. We look to protect both our instructors and our business so we can continue our mission of saving lives.

Example Cancellation/Rescheduling Policy

‘Cancellations or rescheduling must be made no later than 24 hours before the class start time in order to receive a full refund minus 3.5% processing fees if paid by credit card. If you choose to reschedule or cancel within 24 hours of your class start time, you will be refunded or assessed a rescheduling fee of 50% of your tuition.

Students have 30 days to reschedule their class before forfeiting their entire tuition. A student may only reschedule once. A second rescheduling will require repayment of full tuition.

Students that do not attend class and make no attempt to contact us in advance of their absence will forfeit 100% of their tuition.’

For an example of how you could use this, visit our partners website and follow the process to sign up for a class (no need to complete registration) and see the terms of service and cancellation policy here. 

Considerations

Another thing to consider beyond administration time, is the cost of credit/debit card processing. Be careful to note that if you are using a card processor, you are paying fees on the transaction. Most CPR businesses pay 1.5-6% on transaction fees a year. You pay these fees both when you accept payment and when you refund payment. This means that you can actually end up paying to refund a student! Be aware of your processing fees and pass them off to the customer if the change was due to their own obligations.

More CPR Business Help: How to Become an AHA Training Site

 

 

Filed Under: Business Advice

Why Become a CPR Instructor?

June 11, 2020 By Andrew Randazzo

Why become a CPR Instructor?

There are couple of reasons why it may be beneficial to have CPR Instructor training. Typically people have an idea of who they may want to train in doing CPR. If you do not, becoming a CPR instructor is not necessary. While some instructor courses in various industries are designed to give you a more thorough knowledge of the topic, this is not the scenario for CPR. CPR instructor classes simply teach how to educate others on the skills you should have previously mastered in a CPR class. (Having a current CPR certification is a prerequisite for any CPR Instructor course.)

#1. If you work for a corporate organization

Organizations that require several employees to be CPR certified may find it more cost-effective to have an employee who can perform the training in-house.

To find out if it’s cost effective for your organization to train an in house CPR instructor, watch this video:

#2. You want to teach in your community:

An individual looking for an opportunity to earn extra income may like the flexibility and independent work of being a CPR Instructor. Instructors can make on average $300 for a 4 hour class.

CPR Instructor Trainer teaching in community.

You can look for a CPR Instructor Course through our Training Center here, or visit the Class Eagle Health and Safety Instructor directory to see all courses across the country. 

If you are interested in starting a CPR training business check out this video:

Filed Under: Business Advice, Uncategorized

Frustration and Passion in CPR Training

October 3, 2016 By Andrew Randazzo

In this post, I will reflect on my greatest frustration as well as passion for CPR training. These are feelings that I have experienced in my career as a paramedic, health-care and as a training professional. I will explain my frustration in the industry and how the cause of this frustration is also directly linked to my greatest passion. 

My Greatest Passion

My passion is for the community and the culture in the CPR training industry. As mentioned in  my previous blog posts, I very much believe that your business should always have a ‘why’. This is the idea that not only does your CPR training company have a list of services and qualities it provides; but also a real meaning behind it. A meaning or ‘why’ will drive you and your business. CPR Instructor Affiliates has it’s own ‘why’. We exist because we want people to take CPR training seriously and we want to change the culture and approach the industry takes when providing CPR training.

My Greatest Frustration

My greatest frustration in the training industry is when people fail to see their purpose. So often people come into the classroom and say “I don’t know why I have to be here. I’ve been a nurse for 20 years. I’ve taken CPR so many times. I don’t need to do this again.”

These kind of statements frustrate me because what they’re saying shows such a logical disconnect! CPR is no less important that any other medical training or area of medical discipline. CPR is a life-saving practice that can only be enhanced and refreshed by practicing and taking new training courses. No one remembers everything from a 4-hour class for the entirety of, and beyond the two years that your certification card is valid. In fact, we find that people who have had prior CPR training can struggle the most when demonstrating skills because they’ve had inadequate training before or they fail to pay attention. 

Furthermore, every 5 years the materials and procedures for CPR are updated to incorporate new findings and research. You will only learn about these through attending a CPR training class.

Why is this important?

I deeply care about my community and my family and friends. I have a wife and children that I want to see taken care of. CPR Instructor Affiliates trains thousands of medical professionals every year. If someone I love is seriously ill or injured and need CPR, the likelihood is high that one of the professionals we have trained will be administering basic life support. For the good of myself, my family, my community, and the medical practice, I want to make sure people have the best training possible.

Next, professionalism needs to be realized. For various reasons, people have lost a sense of pride in what they do. In my global medical travels I have noticed that American medical professionals take the least amount of pride in what they do. In other countries, people take their jobs seriously, even if it’s not a position that is normally esteemed. I think our lack of professionalism in the U.S. stems from a lack of professionalism in education. When attending a 4-hour class taught through our Training Center, we want students to walk away feeling like you were challenged and earned that certification card. We want to see every student confident in their skills and restore a sense of pride and professionalism in their day to day life.

Closing Thoughts

Please remember: Practice is important and refreshing your skills is important. Learning the new procedures, techniques, and the information is important for anyone you may give CPR on. CPR training should be a great addition to your knowledge and skills, and not something people rush through to meet requirements. 

Keep up to date with us for more motivation, inspiration and information on CPR training.

Filed Under: Business Advice

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