NILES — Niles High School students learned some potentially lifesaving techniques this week, with help from partners at Lakeland Hospital.

In the gym Wednesday, students from Regina Herber’s life wellness class sat on the floor with prosthetic dummies at their feet. At the guidance of Tami Goslee, a registered nurse and clinical educator for Lakeland Hospital, students learned how to recognize the signs of a heart attack, the steps to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation and how to use an automated external defibrillator. The skills could be applied to reviving infants, children and adults. 

The minutes it takes an ambulance to arrive to aid a person suffering from cardiac arrest can be minutes too late, Goslee said.

“The more people that know CPR, the more lives we will be able to save,” Goslee said. “We are doing that first step in the chain of survival. When the ambulance gets here, we have done that first step in letting them not go without oxygen.”

The training is part of a state mandated ordinance signed by Gov. Rick Snyder on Dec. 28, which ordered high school student to get instruction for CPR and automated external defibrillator training before graduation. According the American Heart Association, the law was enacted in attempt to curb the number of deaths from cardiac arrest.

“But they did not give any funding for the schools to do so,” Goslee said.

Fortunately, Niles Community Schools has a partnership with Lakeland Hospital called Community Health and Wellness. The program has initiated other health based projects to give students the tools they need to stay healthy.

For the CPR program, Lakeland Hospital covered the cost of equipment and staff on site who trained students, Goslee said. They also took the state ordinance one step further and decided to certify students in CPR, rather than just providing basic instruction.

“It allows them to have awareness of how they can impact the lives of others,” Goslee said. “I think they can now have the awareness of when someone is experiencing a heart attack or if someone is unresponsive they will know what to do. It empowers them to make decisions and that is our goal.”

Students will receive about four hours of training over the course of four days to earn certification. The training included instructional videos from the American Heart Association and then, with the help of Lakeland staff , students practiced the skills.

Freshman Makiya Rushing was one of about 100 students who will receive the training this semester. The rest of the freshman class is set to be trained next semester. 

As she strapped AED pads to a dummy, Rushing said the combination of watching videos and practicing the CPR and AED steps helped to make the lessons stick. 

Before this semester, Rushing said she knew nothing about CPR. 

“I never even thought about it,” Rushing said. “It is a good cause to know.”

Students who complete the training will be CPR certified for two years. Goslee hopes that students taking the training will feel encouraged to renew their certification once it is up.

As she observed her students Wednesday, Herber said she was thankful for the district’s partnership with the Lakeland.

“We all hope that we never have to use it, but if I see someone go down and I have these skills, now I can provide care.” Herber said. “It builds their confidence.”