Business readies for grand opening

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Having to travel to different areas to attend classes for certifications, two licensed practical nurses thought it would be nice to have just one place for people to go.

Health care providers have to renew certain certifications every couple of years. Others might want to earn a certification for the first time.

There also are community members or workplace professionals who need or want training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, automated external defibrillators, first aid or bloodborne pathogens.

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But if you live in this area, you have to travel at least an hour to take each class.

Now, that’s no longer the case.

After serving as independent instructors together the past two years, Camille Wages and Carla Harden recently decided to have a storefront for CPR Aces of Indiana. They found a former dentist office at 319 W. Third St. in Seymour to be the perfect location to serve people in the area.

Both LPNs are American Heart Association-certified instructors and combine for 41 years of nursing experience and 31 years of ventilator experience.

“The AHA wants as many instructors as possible, and there is such a shortage, there is a huge shortage, so they want you to get in, find other people and be instructors,” Harden said.

Wages and Harden had been traveling all around to teach classes, but they sometimes had to find places to conduct them.

With the office in Seymour, they will have set days for classes.

“We felt like it was important that nurses know where to go every two years … so everybody is going to know where to come when they need certification,” Wages said.

From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, the business will conduct an open house to give people an opportunity to stop by and learn about the class offerings. For the first three hours, free massages also will be offered. There also will be refreshments throughout the day, and attendees can receive percents off of classes.

Wages and Harden met a few years ago while working together with a young child who had been on a ventilator his whole life and wasn’t able to breathe on his own.

He had been in and out of the hospital several times. Those stints typically last a few days, and that means the home care nurses have to take unpaid vacation because they aren’t working with the child.

Over time, Wages learned there are training and certifications nurses could receive to help the child not get sick and have to go to the hospital.

She shared that thought with Harden, and they began to look for places to take basic life support, advanced cardiac life support, pediatric cardiac life support, intravenous and tuberculosis classes to become American Heart Association-certified instructors.

It took two years to complete all of them.

“It’s a commitment, but it’s something we’re both very passionate about,” Wages said.

Through CPR Aces of Indiana, Wages and Harden offer courses for health care providers, Heartsaver courses for community members and workplace professionals and occupational first aid. Many of those are American Heart Association classes.

Wages also wrote a ventilator education course that she teaches.

At the Seymour office, classes can be conducted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and each instructor can lead up to 10 people at a time.

Wages and Harden also can come to you. They have done training for schools, lifeguards, fitness centers, foster homes, factories, farms and others.

If they are training more than 20 people, they can have other people assist with various tasks unrelated to the actual training, such as running the television and DVD player, passing out and picking up tests and cleaning mannequins.

Depending on their job, health care employees have to have certain certifications. Sometimes, they want to be certified in other areas just so they are that much more educated, Harden said.

“Once they get (other certifications), that opens them up to other job possibilities they hadn’t even thought of before,” she said.

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CPR Aces of Indiana now has a storefront at 319 W. Third St. in Seymour.

An open house will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, giving people a chance to learn about the course offerings. Free massages will be offered for the first three hours; refreshments will be available throughout the day; and attendees can receive percents off of classes.

The business offers the following courses for health care providers: Basic life support (cardiopulmonary resuscitation); advanced cardiac life support; ACLS renewal; ACLS/BLS combination; pediatric advanced life support; PALS/BLS combination; pediatric emergency assessment, recognition and stabilization; PPD certification; intravenous certification; and ventilator certification.

It also offers these Heartsaver courses for community members and workplace professionals: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator; CPR, AED and first aid; first aid; and bloodborne pathogens.

An occupational first aid course also is available.

Classes can be conducted at the Seymour office Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or the instructors can come to you.

Information: Camille Wages at 812-493-6754 or Carla Harden at 812-374-7210

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