Purpose: To provide individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide a safe environment to adult athletes while they are participating in sports and, in an emergency, to help sustain life and minimize the consequences of injury or sudden illness until medical help arrives.

Prerequisites: None

Learning Objectives:

• Explain how the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system works and the coach's role in the EMS system, including when and how to call EMS personnel;

• Recognize a coach's safety responsibilities and how they impact injury prevention for athletes;

• Identify and eliminate or minimize potentially hazardous conditions that may place athletes, coaches, officials and spectators at risk of injury;

• Identify the signals of breathing emergencies, including choking;

• Demonstrate how to provide adult rescue breathing and first aid for choking;

• Identify the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease and describe how to minimize them;

• Recognize the signals of a possible heart attack, and describe how to care for someone who is experiencing persistent chest pain;

• Identify the signals of cardiac arrest, and demonstrate how to provide CPR for an adult until emergency medical care arrives;

• Identify life–threatening bleeding, and demonstrate how to control it;

• Identify the signals of shock, and describe how to minimize its effects;

• Identify the signals of various soft tissue and musculoskeletal injuries and demonstrate how to care for them;

• Identify the signals of sudden illness, including poisoning, bites and stings, and heat and cold emergencies, and describe how to care for them; and

• Describe when and how to move an athlete in an emergency situation.

Length Approximately 6 hours, 30 minutes

Certification Requirements:

• Attend and participate in all course sessions;

• Demonstrate competency in all required skills listed on the skills checklist;

• Participate in all skills sessions; and

• Pass each section of the written exam with a score of 80 percent or better.

Certificates Issued and Validity Periods:

• Adult CPR – 1 year

• Sport Safety Training OR Sports Injury Prevention and First Aid – 3 years