The Problem

Heart disease and heart attacks are the leading cause of death for women in the United States, yet most CPR training facilities do not use female simulators. Unfortunately, this educational bias has devastating consequences. According to a study done by the American Heart Association, only 39% of women receive needed CPR from bystanders compared to 45% of men. Additionally, men are 23% more likely than women to survive a cardiac incident. Studies have found that many bystanders have common fears surrounding administering CPR on a female body such as a fear of being accused of sexual harassment and a fear of injury. Put simply, a lack of education, practice, and conversations around administering CPR on a female body has proven to be deadly.

Despite a longstanding history of bias in the field of heart health, many of these problems come with simple solutions. Through a training curriculum that highlights common misconceptions and emphasizes symptom variations in cardiac incidents across sexes, CPR training can become more inclusive and effective.

What We Do

EA CPR connects with schools and hospitals to improve CPR training and discuss heart health in a more inclusive way. Our work takes the following forms:

1. Implementing CPR training curriculum in high schools and training facilities that includes common differences in symptoms across sexes and fosters open conversations between students and instructors around common gender biases.
2. Fundraising to provide schools and training facilities with female CPR simulators to normalize performing CPR on persons with breasts and allow students to practice this life-saving care on different body types.
3. Advocating for increasing the frequency of school staff training sessions.