Ormskirk based university, Edge Hill, have been shortlisted in the UK Heart Safe awards 2016, in recognition to their commitment to heart health.
They will now have to wait until the 7th October to find out whether or not they will win the Educational Establishment of Year award, with the ceremony being held in Manchester.
The 2014/15 Times University of the Year winners, have been shortlisted due to their commitment in undertaking Heartstart training, which has been offered among staff and students at the campus.
Heartstart, which is supported by the British Heart Foundation, offers training to help people understand and recognise the risks and symptoms of heart attacks and teach how to react in the instance that somebody suffers one.
Senior Lecturer in paramedic practice and pre-hospital care at the University, Karen Simpson, celebrated the success of the Heartstart initiative, saying:
“Winning the UK Heart Safe award would help to promote Edge Hill’s focus on simple first aid skills, and potentially encourage future students to undertake research in this life-saving area.”
“Edge Hill University has held a number of events with professional groups such as Hand on heart, Lancashire Defibrillation Campaign, British Heart Foundation and North West Ambulance Service to promote heart safe skills”
“We have also introduced heart safe skills as a mandatory requirement for certain job roles and post-graduate courses to ensure life-saving skills are present across the campus.”
“In the future we are looking to develop a mobile app that provides basic first aid advice and information about health services in the area.”
“The university also hopes to be registered with the UK Resuscitation Council by the end of 2017.
Scott Rees & Co Partner for Serious and Catastrophic Injury, Chris Walker, congratulated the university on their efforts in committing to such an important scheme, saying:
“The effects of a heart attach can be truly devastating for everyone involved and change a family’s lives forever. By training students and staff at their university, Edge Hill could effectively give a potential victim a greater chance of survival and improve the quality of life a victim can expect to have following a cardiac arrest.”
“Initiatives such as these are hugely important, especially within environments where there is a large population. Heart attacks do not always come with warnings and more often than not happen out of the blue, so It would be pretty reassuring knowing that if you are a student belong to Edge Hill or just a visitor on site, you would stand a greater chance of being helped if the worst happens to you.”
“It is a great achievement to be recognised by the UK Heart Safe awards and hopefully the university will win the award for their superb efforts.”
The UK Heart Safe awards are the UK’s leading awards for celebrating heart safe enivonments, so Edge Hill’s achievement to be shortlisted for such a prestigious award is already a fantastic achievement in itself.
Good Luck from on the 7th October.