HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — CPR could mean the difference between life or death for millions of people but studies show the chances of a bystander giving CPR to a Black person are dramatically different.
A local registered nurse is trying to change that, one breath at a time with her mobile CPR training class.
Tamisha Good said her own life experiences motivated her to launch her company, Concierge Healthcare Training Services & Consulting.
“By day, I’m a registered nurse. I started this business at the beginning of last year,” Tanisha Good said. “My fiancé, he had a major massive heart attack three years ago and it just shook me. I tell people all the time that this is what I do in a professional setting. I know how to do CPR. I know how to take care of people. I know disease processes, but when it happens to someone you love, someone you care about, your own family, it’s totally different.”
Good and her brother Elijah teach mobile CPR training and lifesaving classes all over Tampa Bay.
Once she launched the business, Good learned about some of the startling statistics when it comes to the Black community and bystander CPR.
“I’m very passionate about the community awareness aspect of it, the fact that there are certain communities with disparities,” she said. “The fact that EMS response times in minority communities is sometimes double or triple what it is in other communities, or the fact that minority women are the last to receive bystander CPR.”
Knowing when to start lifesaving measures like CPR, the Heimlich Maneuver and how to use an AED are just part of the solution. A study from the American Heart Association highlights the difference it makes when CPR training courses are given to young people who live in minority communities. Providing funding for training for those people at high risk for cardiovascular disease is also vital the study points out. There’s a big emphasis on groups or companies going into Black and Hispanic communities to provide CPR training to help change some of the statistics.
So why are bystander CPR numbers lower for Black people experiencing cardiac arrest when compared to their white counterparts? One study points to neighborhoods as part of the reason. People who needed CPR in predominantly Black neighborhoods were 40% less likely to receive bystander CPR when compared to a mostly white neighborhood.
With Black women being the least likely to receive bystander CPR out of all the groups, Good started looking for answers herself.
“For it to be minority women, right now they say the reason for that are social issues like the “Me Too” movement and people are just very hands off. People don’t want to be accused of sexual harassment or if they’re unsure of how to do it on women,” she said. “But for that reason I feel that’s all the more reason to take a class so that you can learn how to do it the right way.”
She teaches a class she calls “Sister CPR” and many of the mannequins wear bras so rescuers can truly learn the lifesaving techniques it takes to save someone’s life, no matter their race or gender.
Good offers training classes to any groups including new parents, healthcare professionals or community organizations.
