A group of nursing students came together to use a Student Experience Grant to train others in life saving techniques. Nursing students Lorena Álvarez de Eulate Mullany, Irma Rodriguez, Anabel Fernandez, Megan Caldwell and Merwa Zen, and medical student Hannah Kaufmann Wolfe found inspiration for their Student Experience Grant (SEG) while volunteering as part of Restart a Heart Day in 2022. The experience in 2022 was fascinating and rewarding, inspiring the need to replicate this initiative at the University. With the support of university staff, we applied for a Student Grant and UoE Saving Lives was born! Lorena UoE Saving Lives sought to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) awareness to the community of students and staff at the University of Edinburgh with a series of events delivered across the University. SEG funding enabled the purchase of equipment, including mannequins and external defibrillators, as well as meeting the costs of running those events. Cardiac arrests can occur suddenly and require immediate care and being able to perform CPR can save a life. The University is also well equipped with defibrillators in public areas and around university buildings, but without an understanding of how to use these life-saving machines, they lose their effectiveness. After recruiting volunteers to help run the sessions, the project carried out six events, even braving wind and rain when working outdoors, to make more than 300 people CPR aware. They partnered with the organisation Save a Life for Scotland, who helped plan and deliver the sessions and who supported them with equipment, training and materials. The initiative has since inspired others to keep it alive, with new students taking over and running furthers events. The team has received wider recognition as well and was even nominated in the Nursing Student of the Year category at the RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards! We gained confidence in our potential as not only student nurses but as leaders. Lorena The students were nominated at the RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards in the Nursing Student category. Thanks to the generosity of alumni, this project has equipped students and staff at the University with skills to take lifesaving action and continues to inspire life saving action to this day! Links UoE Saving Lives nominated for RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards This article was published on 2024-08-09
