Educating clients about first aid and CPR

Our practice is interested in offering pet first aid and CPR classes to our clients. How do we get started?

First, a team member or two will need to become certified in pet first aid and CPR—you can contact your local Red Cross chapter to find out about certification classes. Ann Selander, CVT, CVPM, MBA, hospital administrator at WestVet Emergency & Specialty Center in Boise, Idaho, says her local chapter required anyone from her practice interested in teaching classes to take a four-hour instructor course. Those staffers who completed the course became certified pet first aid instructors for one year.

Ann Selander

Several WestVet technicians attended and became certified, so the hospital had a large pool of team members available for teaching. In addition to the certification class, the Red Cross publishes dog and cat first aid books and an instructional video you can use to develop training materials. Selander says the process is similar to a human CPR class.