I grew up in Warren, a little town in northwestern Pennsylvania. After graduating in 1974 from the College of Wooster in Ohio (social work major), I moved to the Washington, DC area and have lived here ever since. I worked at Chestnut Lodge, a psychiatric hospital, for thirteen years. I was hired as a psychiatric technician but soon started teaching a variety of subjects for the nursing orientation, specializing in Non Violent Crisis Intervention and the use of a therapeutic restraint technique called Cold Wet Sheet Pack. I also served as the milieu therapist and helped develop team building for the nursing staff on problem units. My last position at the Lodge was as the nursing department’s staffing coordinator.
While working at the Lodge in 1985, I took my first CPR class. Within a year I became an instructor and taught part time for one of the very first companies in the DC area that specialized in providing CPR instruction to both the general public and to companies. I found that I enjoyed teaching so much, I quit my job at Chestnut Lodge and started Heartline CPR, Inc. in September 1989. I have now taught over 30,000 people in these life saving techniques.
My students have included people from a wide variety of professions and backgrounds. I have taught White House Communication people and neighborhood lifeguards, day care workers and construction workers, dentists and candy store clerks, cardiologists and cardiac patients families, expectant parents and hospice workers, employees of the World Bank and employees of a blood bank, as well as staff from virtually every local hospital from the NIH clinical center to St. Elizabeth’s.
I hope to use this blog to continue to pass on my experience and passion to others who enjoy learning and teaching CPR. I hope you will join me and share with me this exploration of how and what to teach in future CPR classes.
It would be really great to hear from anyone who has taken my CPR or First Aid class over the years or have worked at Chestnut Lodge.