- Alpine School District and Intermountain Health partnered for bleeding control training.
- The training, inspired by a lifesaving incident, certified 5,000 staff members.
- Following a presentation about the training, lawmakers suggest other districts may adopt similar programs.
SALT LAKE CITY — In May 2024, a teacher at Lehi High School was injured in an explosion during a welding class. The injuries the teacher sustained were life-threatening.
"One of the students in this class came up to our school nurse and said, 'I'm training to be an EMT. I would like to help you.' The school nurse began CPR compressions, and she instructed this student to implement bleeding control techniques to an area where there was severe bleeding," said Kim Lowe, Alpine School District's school nurse supervisor.
Thanks to such a rapid response and the student's training, a life was saved that day, Lowe said.
She told the story during a presentation about emergency casualty care to the Utah Legislature's School Security Task Force on Monday.
Her presentation came a week after the Alpine School District partnered with Intermountain Health to complete "Stop the Bleed" training at the majority of the district's 90 schools. The training focuses on bleeding control techniques.
"Teaching people proper CPR for the last several decades has made a huge difference in saving lives, and now Stop the Bleed training is aiming to do the same," said Maranda Davis, a registered nurse and trauma services manager for Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, in a statement.
"Providing our educators an opportunity to have a hands-on experience with tools is a key component to this training," Davis continued. "It helps remove the hesitancy someone may have due to what they have seen in movies or on TV."
While the incident at Lehi High School was undoubtedly a success story, Lowe emphasized to the legislative task force that it doesn't always play out that way.
"School nurses are assigned to multiple schools. We can't be in all of our schools every single day, so that's why it's so imperative that we train teachers and staff as first responders in the event of an emergency throughout the year," Lowe said.
Every year, the district certifies about 1,200 staff members in CPR, first aid and bleeding control techniques. But this year, the Stop the Bleed training helped the district certify designated guardians who are assigned to each of the district's schools.
The training took place over two days, and Lowe said it was "inspiring" to see how teamwork and enthusiasm helped the district accomplish its goal.
"Between those two days, we trained over 5,000 faculty and staff members. For those teachers and staff members who were unable to attend one of those trainings, Alpine school nurses have already scheduled additional sessions to train and certify them in the next few weeks," she said.
A release from Intermountain Health says the knowledge from the training is not only vital in a mass causality event but can save lives during other emergencies that require bleeding to be controlled.
Following the success of the Alpine School District's program, lawmakers said it wouldn't be surprising to see other districts in the state follow suit and undertake the same type of training.
"Hopefully, you can share that with other school districts about how you did it and how you made it happen. Sometimes people just need a great example of how to get this done," Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, and chairwoman of the task force, told Lowe after her presentation.
