Chicago’s Pulse becomes the school for CNAs

• Reprints

June Eastman (from left), owner of Chicago’s Pulse CPR Training, Inc, and her associates Todd Malmborg and Christina Errico, work with “Dora,” the company’s resuscitation mannequin. | Supplied Photo

Updated: May 9, 2012 10:01AM

It is quite possible that June Eastman doesn’t sleep.

After all, she works as a Chicago Fire Department paramedic and can be on call for 24 hours at a time. She is also a busy wife and a mom to three children. If that’s not enough, she owns and runs Chicago’s Pulse CPR Training Inc. and recently expanded this business in size, and in the types of classes she offers.

For the past five years, her business flourished as a training center for American Heart Association CPR, advance cardiac life support, and pediatric advanced life support. However, earlier this year, Eastman received accreditation by the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Public Health so that she can now offer training for people to become certified nurse assistants.

Sleep? Who needs it? Apparently not Eastman, who wants to train good health care workers, but also wants to give these same people an avenue to find employment in these trying economic times.

“I am trying to be accommodating in this economic situation,” Eastman said. “You can train as a CNA and get a job immediately. Anyone can do this. There is a need for CNAs and high school kids coming out of school can learn this.”

Eastman also said CNA training is a prerequisite for nursing school, because it is a foundation to nursing.

“Depending on the school, CNA training can make students better nurses,” Eastman said.

Eastman opened her business at 3211 W. 111th St. in the Mount Greenwood community of Chicago in September 2007. She was inspired to open a CPR training center shortly after responding to a 911 call for a baby who was not breathing and had no pulse. If someone near the baby had known CPR, it is possible the child may have survived.

When Eastman opened her business, she began by teaching basic CPR, advanced cardiac, and pediatric advanced life support. She wanted more, however. She wanted people to have CNA training either for their own caregiving roles within their families, or for potential jobs. Now that she operates her own certified CNA school, Eastman has her wish.

Currently, she offers two CNA classes — an accelerated course that will meet every day from Jan. 2 to Jan. 24, 2012, and a course that will meet three times a week in the evenings from Jan. 2 to Feb. 23, 2012.

With three training rooms and a “simulation lab” that has a resuscitation mannequin, Eastman currently has 40 openings for students. Students learn CNA skills, such as blood pressure monitoring, blood checks for sugar levels, and various resuscitation meds to name a few of the lessons covered.

Christina Errico, an associate of Eastman’s, has been with Chicago’s Pulse for two years. She is a certified CPR instructor and currently teaches the free infant CPR classes that are offered every third Thursday of the month at 10 a.m. Errico explained that the 124 hours of CNA classes are broken up into three levels: 40 hours of classroom work, 40 hours of actual “hands-on work,” 40 hours of simulated lab work and four hours of CPR training.

“We are affiliated with two nursing homes where our students can practice the skills they learned. They can take blood pressure, or blood sugar readings, and help with feeding, shaving or helping people use the bathroom,” Errico said.

“In our simulation lab, students can work with our mannequin “Dora” and Dora is good enough to have a sense of a real person. Students learn to make a bed with someone in it, and they can also practice taking blood pressure with each other, and get some real skills,” Errico said.

Once students have completed their training, Chicago’s Pulse will handle the paperwork necessary for students to sit for the competency exam that is required by the state for CNA training.

Todd Malmborg, who is also an associate and assistant for Eastman, has been with the company for five years. In addition to the classes that are offered on site, Malmborg described heart saver, CPR and automated external defibrillator classes that were recently held at Marist High School, 4200 W. 115th St.

“We had three long days of classes,” Malmborg said. “I’d say about 170 people took the classes because all of Marist’s staff people took the class, along with a lot of spouses. We had a 9-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio, so no one was lost.”

Sue Gardner, RN, Marist’s school nurse, wrote about the CPR training in an email.

“It had been a dream of mine to have every adult in our building trained in CPR and use of the AED. We had been able to certify small groups in the past but our plan to train all 140 faculty and staff was daunting. Over the course of three days we were able to certify 138 people in CPR and use of the AED.”

“We have several defibrillators located in our building and now everyone has the confidence to use them. My next dream would be to have every student certified and maybe even have the training incorporated into the curriculum,” Gardner wrote.

Currently, Eastman can accommodate 20 students in each class and has room for 40 more. CNA classes are taught by nurses who are specifically CNA instructors approved through the Illinois State Board of Education. CPR classes are taught by Eastman’s staff of about 20 instructors, who are active duty nurses, paramedics and health care workers.

CNA training costs $900 but if students sign up before Dec. 1, Eastman said the cost will be $850. Those who wish to have CNA training must pass a physical exam, and have a tuberculosis screening, a picture ID, a criminal background check and a valid social security number. Applicants must also have a high school diploma, or an equivalent.

Eastman is enthusiastic about her work, and her new role in preparing people to become CNAs.

“I love what we are doing here. Saving lives is my life’s work, and yes, it is much more important than sleep,” Eastman said.

For information about the classes Eastman offers, visit www.chicagospulsecprtraining.com or call (773) 445-2277.

Patti Ahern is a citizen journalist from the Beverly community. She can be contacted at PattiRMA@aol.com.