Quebec Nurse helps bring ACT High School CPR Program to her teenagers’ school

For a lot of reasons, Shirley Straughton believes everyone should know CPR.

For one, Shirley is a cardiac nurse, and knows all too well about heart disease. For another, as the Health Issues Coordinator for the Quebec Federation of Home and School Associations, it’s her goal to see that students receive quality health care education. And finally, as a mother of two teenagers, she felt it was important they learn CPR.

With ACT’s help, Shirley convinced both the Home and School Association and MacDonald High School, where her teenagers study, to endorse high school CPR.

“Definitely, parents benefit when teenagers learn CPR,” Shirley says. “Consider when teenagers are responsible for younger children. Electric shock, allergies, or slipping into a pool can cause cardiac or respiratory failure.”

“ACT’s high school CPR course teaches students all the vital skills,” she says. “My goal is to keep this program going and growing.”

The ACT High School CPR Program was made possible in Montreal thanks to the generous support of ACT’s Quebec provincial partners: J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, McKesson Canada, the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services, the Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports, Scotiabank and Sun Life Financial. Mannequins and curriculum resources were donated to the school and the teachers were trained as CPR instructors for their students.
Also responsible are ACT’s core partners, companies in the research-based pharmaceutical industry: AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, Pfizer Canada and sanofi-aventis. They provide ACT’s sustaining funding and are committed to the Foundation’s Quebec Program and national goal of promoting health and empowering Canadians to save lives.

The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation is an award-winning, national charitable organization dedicated to establishing CPR in high schools across Canada. ACT raises funds to donate mannequins, teacher training, manuals and other materials to schools and guides schools in program set-up and long-term sustainability. Teachers teach CPR to their students as a regular part of the curriculum. More than 900,000 youth have been trained in CPR through this lifesaving program to date.