Review: Prestan CPR Manikin Family Pack
One of the most popular CPR Manikin packs offered is the Prestan Family pack. Today we are going to review the Prestan family pack. The Prestan family pack is made up of Prestan’s professional series of mannequins.
The pack includes two adult manikins, two infant manikins, and 1 child manikin. The pack is ideal for CPR instructors getting started who want to get a discounted price for buying multiple manikins. The manikin pricing is better if you buy it as a package rather than buying them individually.
Are Prestan Family Pack Manikins AHA complaint?
The American Heart Association (AHA) and American Red Cross (ARC) now require that Basic Life support instructors use manikins with feedback devices. Prestan mannequins are completely AHA compliant and give feedback on both your compression rate and depth. There is visual feedback built into the manikins with a light system in the shoulder and an audible feedback with a clicking sound in the chest as you do your compressions.
The light system in Prestan products is very helpful to let students know if they are performing compressions at the right tempo. This allows students to self correct if the instructor is working with another student at the time. A solid green light means the compressions are at the correct tempo. A yellow light indicates slow compressions, and a red light indicates no compressions detected.
Prestan Family Pack Manikin Diversity
The family pack of manikins comes in both a medium skintone and a dark skintone.
Prestan also offers a Take-2 pack that has 2 adult manikins, 2 infant manikins, and 2 AED trainers. However, the child manikin is excluded from the pack. Most of the time instructors will use the adult mannequins even for the child practice because effectively it is the same thing as far as the depth and the rate of compressions. You can tell the adult is slightly taller by 2.5 inches and the the chest is about an inch and a half deeper than the child. The only other distinguishing characteristic is that the child has a hairline whereas the adult is seemingly bald. The Take-2 pack can be purchased in either medium or dark skin as well as in a ‘diversity pack’ that is a combination of both skin tones.
These manikins also come with the option to add a female accessory. Studies have shown that women are less likely to receive CPR than men. Because of this, Prestan has added this option to help people get more comfortable with performing CPR compressions on a female victim.
Durability & Longevity
Prestan manikins first came on the market in 2004. Since our initial purchase of Prestan manikins, we have yet to replace any. These manikins are made from a very durable material and they have held up to considerable use and cleaning. If a manikin part or skin was to be the victim of damage, replacement parts can be purchased instead of replacing the entire manikin.
Critiques
We’re really getting into the nitty gritty here, but the area for most improvement with the Prestan family pack is the carry bag that it comes with. The manikins seemingly live forever, but the nylon bag wears down after 5-10 years of heavy use. To be fair, it’s unlikely that any other lightweight bag would fair better. Most any CPR instructor will tell you that hauling around equipment can be difficult and that your equipment may get more wear and tear from being transported than being used.
Final Remarks
If you are looking to up your game with quality manikins or you are just getting started; the Prestan Family Pack could be a really good option for you to kick start into the Prestan family. If you already have Prestan and you are looking to get some more; rather than buying them individually you might want to invest and purchase a family pack. Prestan has their ‘Take2’ value kit as well. It comes with two adults, two infants, and then two AED ultra trainers.
