Description

My name is Katie Wendell RN-BSN, Board Certified Nurse Coach. I am the Beloit Jr-Sr High School Nurse for USD 273 in Beloit, Kansas. Our campaign mission is to acquire additional AEDs to have on our activity buses. Our district currently has 9 buses and only 1 AED for traveling. We often have several buses traveling to different activities in a day and believe it would be beneficial to have more traveling AEDs available. Raising awareness of heart conditions and how to provide immediate treatment is a priority as we prepare young people for life. Our district feels that the more prepared we are for a sudden cardiac arrest(SCA) or event, the better we can serve our students, staff and community. We wish to educate on the prevalence of and effective care for sudden cardiac arrest. We strive to have a safe and healthy school and be prepared for all emergency situations that may arise. Having AEDs readily available while traveling to activities has the potential to save lives as providing immediate CPR, along with the use of an automated external defibrillator(AED) can triple the chance of survival. SCA is an unexpected pulseless condition and it strikes more than 1,000 people outside of hospitals(including about 16 youths <18 years old) every day in the U.S.-and most victims die. As a school preparing young people for life, we feel that it makes sense to be able to save a life!.