Class helps students earn lifeguarding, CPR certification
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, ten people die every day from unintentional drowning. To try to reduce the number of drowning victims, the University of Indianapolis offers a lifeguarding course enabling students to acquire skills necessary to become lifeguards certified by the American Red Cross.
Kinesiology 200 Lifeguarding/CPR-PR is an elective course offered in the spring semester for all UIndy students who want to become Red Cross certified lifeguards. Lifeguarding is a six-week course.
The course includes personal water safety instruction, lifesaving/lifeguarding skills, and CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and AED (automated external defibrillator) training according to the registrar academic catalog.
Ralph Richardson, the instructor for basic lifeguarding, has been an adjunct professor of Kinesiology at UIndy for eight years, where he teaches lifeguarding, water safety instruction and aquatics courses. He has been a lifeguarding instructor for 15 years.
“The lifeguarding course teaches students to oversee [aquatic] facilities and patron safety in the water as well as out of the water,” Richardson said. “It also offers the CPR-PR certification which is the cardiopulmonary resuscitation, for professional rescuers, first aid and oxygen administration.”
As a prerequisite, students must be able to swim 500 yards and tread water for two minutes. They also are required to surface dive by retrieving a 10 pound object in deep water.
“I decided to take this class because I thought it was a great idea to get a lifeguarding certificate to use on my résumé,” said senior international relations major Vicki Galiamoutsa. “It will let me work and I don’t have to pay anything to take the class. The best thing about the class is you get college credit.”
However, enrolling in the basic lifeguarding course does not ensure that a student will become a certified lifeguard. The class only gives him or her the skills and opportunity to become qualified. To become a certified Red Cross lifeguard, the participant must be able to pass the written and practical exams.
“The most difficult thing about this course is remembering all the names for the different rescues,” Galiamoutsa said. “It is easy to just learn what to do in what situations, but the names are very similar. So, it is easy to mix them up.”
The Red Cross will certify anyone who is 15 years or older and can fulfill all the requirements needed for certification. The lifeguarding license lasts for two years. The license must be renewed at the end of the term, according to the Red Cross website.
“This [course] offers students the opportunity to go out and find a lifeguarding job at local facilities wherever they live or work,” Richardson said. “It is a Red Cross certification so it is nationally known. They can go anywhere at a facility that has a requirement of a Red Cross certification.”
For those interested in taking the class, the Department of Kinesiology offers the Kinesiology 200 Lifeguarding/CPR-PR course the second semester every year.
