When Emergency Responders can’t come to you, you can go to them!  If you aren’t able to offer in-person Emergency First Response® provider-level refresher courses during the COVID-19 pandemic – due to social distancing measures in place – you can offer instructor-led online learning programs to participants. This is a special allowance for EFR® Instructors during the pandemic, to refresh prior CPR and first-aid training.  Here’s how you do it:

Knowledge

  • Participants need to review Emergency First Response Primary and Secondary Care manual in advance of the virtual class.
  • You walk through the manual with participants in the virtual classroom, using knowledge reviews and scenarios as tools – prompting discussions.
  • For assessment purposes, use an oral exam technique or use knowledge reviews to have participants find the answers.

 Skills

  • Show video skill segments and discuss key points from manual, and/or provide demonstrations.
  • Incorporate live skills when possible with mannequins, or with family members for illness/injury assessment, or for showing hand placement and steps for CPR (no compressions on humans).
  • Use the EFR Primary and Secondary Care PowerPoint presentation for skill review.
  • Encourage refreshed emergency responders to come in for a hands-on skills refresher when social distancing restrictions are lifted.

 Logistics

  • Use two-way camera webinar format, which allows interactivity with participants (as during in-person classroom), and the ability to assess participant understanding. See Instructor-Led Online Learning for more information on setting up a virtual classroom
  • Because this is refreshing existing knowledge, you have latitude to use creativity and rely on your good training to engage, assess and inspire participants in a virtual environment.

Course Completion Registration

As a result of the refresher, submit a new EFR Primary and Secondary Care Course Completion Authorization when you feel participant knowledge and skill recall is sufficient.

For more information on how to conduct an Online Refresher, tune into the recorded webinar.

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