Cardiac arrest management: part 1. Understanding the role of Basic Life Support in the latest American Heart Association guidelines.

: You've just finished renewing your CPR card at the firehouse, and now you're sitting in the day room with your classmates. One of them is frustrated that the guidelines keep changing. "First it's five compressions to one breath," he says. "Then it's 15 to two, and now 30 to two. And what about shocking first? They just can't seem to make up their minds." You liked the class, but you can't help thinking about all the cardiac arrests you've been on over the years. For all the changes in CPR and the new toys and drugs paramedics use now, very few patients seem to get pulses back and walk out of the hospital. You wonder if things will change with the new guidelines.