Surveying 2,000 UK workers, Direct365 asked participants about their confidence in attending to someone with a cardiac arrest and quizzed them on their knowledge in using a defibrillator.

Less than a half of Brits would know what to do if a colleague suffered a cardiac arrest

When participants were asked how confident they would be in their knowledge regarding how to respond to a cardiac arrest, only 11% of workers said that they would be ‘very confident’ in knowing what to do. An additional 35% said that they would be ‘fairly confident’. 

The remaining 54% of people were not confident in knowing how to respond to a cardiac arrest, exemplifying a need for further education into first aid among workplaces in the UK. 

This was further illustrated when asking respondents how confident they were in performing CPR. While CPR training is part of the British school curriculum, almost a quarter of workers consider themselves as not being confident at all in performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. 

44% of workplaces have a defibrillator, but only 14% of people are confident in using one

In total, less than half of those surveyed said that they had access to a defibrillator within their workplace. In comparison, 32% of people said that their workplace did not have a defibrillator and almost a quarter (24%) of respondents did not in fact know if their organisation did have a defibrillator. 

This therefore indicates that while some workplaces may have a defibrillator, there is more to be done in terms of making their staff members aware and providing necessary training in the event that the use of a defibrillator is required. 

Regardless of whether a workplace has access to a defibrillator, 53% of respondents said that they had never received training on how to use one before. More significantly only 4% of people have received training in the last 3 months and in the past year, only 23% of workers have received relevant training. 

Therefore, people’s confidence in using a defibrillator is lacking. Only 14% of respondents said that they would be very confident in using a defibrillator and a further 23% would be slightly confident, but not without the supervision from someone else. 

Only 8% of workers say that their workplace is within a 3 minute walk to a public defibrillator

For those that do not have access to a defibrillator in their workplace, it is important that they know where their nearest public defibrillator is in relation to their workplace. The best chance of resuscitation will be when a defibrillator is used within the first three minutes of a cardiac arrest[2]. After this, the chances of resuscitation fall by at least 10% for every minute that a defibrillator is not used.

However, only 8% of those surveyed said that their workplaces were located within a 3 minute walk from a public defibrillator. A further 17% of respondents said that their nearest public defibrillator is located within a 3 – 10 minute walk. For the 19% of respondents that said that their nearest public defibrillator was located more than a 10 minute walk from the workplace, a person’s chances of survival are almost impossible. 

Alarmingly, 55% of people are not sure where the nearest public defibrillator to their workplace is located. This therefore indicates that along with providing necessary resuscitation training within the workplace, employees should also have access to relevant information regarding the location of their nearest defibrillators.

Public defibrillators are often not “rescue ready”

Even if your workplace is located near to a public defibrillator, there is a chance that it has not been properly maintained, checked or calibrated and therefore not “rescue ready”. When the survey participants were asked about this, 58% believe that their nearest public defibrillator is in fact rescue ready. Only 9% said that their nearest defibrillator isn’t and the remaining 33% were not sure. 

However not all public defibrillators are in working order. This means that in the event that someone had a cardiac arrest in your workplace, an employee could set off to retrieve a malfunctioning defibrillator and therefore waste crucial life saving minutes. 

Karl Bantleman at Direct365 commented, “It is apparent from our research that more must be done in terms of educating employees around the country in the event that a colleague suffers a cardiac arrest. While it is important to invest in a defibrillator for your workplace, you must also ensure that all staff are provided with CPR and AED training to ensure they are confident in attending to a colleague. 

While it is great that defibrillators are becoming more readily available in our communities, workplaces cannot rely on these in the event that an employee falls ill as it is crucial that a resuscitation, including the use of a defibrillator is used within the few minutes of a cardiac arrest, which is only guaranteed if there is one accessible on site.”