Why Take This Course?
Emergencies do not wait for professionals to arrive.
When something goes wrong, the first few minutes matter. In many situations, the person who makes the biggest difference is not a paramedic or a doctor. It is the person who is already there, recognizes what is happening, and knows what to do next.
The DAN Basic Life Support: CPR & First Aid course gives you the knowledge and hands-on skills to respond to life-threatening illnesses and injuries until professional medical care takes over.
And despite the DAN logo on the card, this is not just a diving course.
CPR works in a parking lot. An AED works in an airport. Bleeding control matters on a boat, at home, on the side of the road, or anywhere else somebody manages to have a spectacularly bad day.
This is not about memorizing slides. It is about learning what to do, practicing it with your own hands, and building enough confidence that you can actually start helping when it matters.
How This Course Works
This course has two parts, and both matter.
Part 1: DAN eLearning Academics
The academic portion is completed online through DAN eLearning. You can work through the knowledge development at your own pace before we meet for the hands-on portion.
You will learn how to recognize emergencies, assess an injured or ill person, understand the basic principles behind CPR and first aid, and make decisions about when and how to intervene.
Part 2: Instructor-Led Skills Development
Then we get off the computer.
The hands-on portion is taught in person by Dive With Frank. You will practice on training manikins, work with AED trainers and first-aid equipment, and run through the skills until they start feeling like something you can actually do instead of something you once saw in an online module.
We work through scenarios, correct problems, repeat skills when necessary, and talk about why we are doing what we are doing.
This portion is taught privately or in small groups, so there is time to practice, ask questions, screw something up safely, fix it, and practice again.
What Will You Learn?
DAN Basic Life Support covers both immediate life-support skills and the first-aid problems you may encounter while waiting for professional help.
Knowledge areas include:
- Basic life support
- Respiration and circulation
- Scene safety and initial assessment
- CPR for adults, children, and infants
- Automated External Defibrillator (AED) use
- Foreign-body airway obstruction and choking
- Shock recognition and management
- First-aid assessments
- External bleeding and wound management
- Medical emergencies
- Burns and temperature-related injuries
- Safe lifting and moving
Hands-on skills you will practice include:
- Scene safety and initial patient assessment
- Using personal protective equipment
- One- and two-rescuer CPR
- Adult, child, and infant CPR
- AED use
- Managing an obstructed airway
- Using the recovery position
- Recognizing and managing shock
- Controlling severe external bleeding
- Wound packing
- Applying a tourniquet
- Bandaging and basic wound care
- F-A-S-T assessment for possible stroke
- Secondary patient assessment
- Splinting
- Taking a patient history
- Responding to severe allergic reactions and opioid overdose
Who Should Take This Course?
Pretty much anybody who would rather be useful than helpless when an emergency happens.
- Certified divers and snorkelers
- Dive professionals and assistants
- Trip leaders and boat crew
- Parents and caregivers
- Coaches, volunteers, and outdoor leaders
- People who spend time around the water
- Anyone who wants practical emergency-response skills
You do not need to be a diver, and no prior medical training is required.
This is the foundation-level DAN first-aid course. If you have never taken CPR before, you can start here.
Why This Matters for Divers
Divers spend a lot of time preparing for emergencies underwater. We practice alternate air sources, emergency ascents, lost-buddy procedures, mask skills, and all sorts of other things we hope never happen.
Then the injured diver reaches the surface.
Now what?
Somebody still has to assess them. Somebody may need to start CPR. Somebody has to get the AED. Somebody may need to control bleeding, manage an airway, recognize shock, or keep the situation from becoming worse while EMS is on the way.
That somebody does not have to be a dive professional.
It might just be the person standing closest who took the time to learn what to do.
It Is Also the Foundation for DAN Emergency Oxygen
If you want to take DAN Emergency Oxygen for Scuba Diving Injuries, you will need current qualifying CPR training first.
DAN Basic Life Support satisfies that requirement and gives you the broader emergency-response foundation that makes the oxygen training much more useful.
If you know you ultimately want the complete DAN first-aid package, including CPR, first aid, emergency oxygen, neurological assessment, and hazardous marine life injury care, you may also want to look at DAN Diving First Aid.
Ready to Get Certified?
You cannot control when an emergency happens.
You can control whether you have spent a few hours learning what to do when it does.
If you want to be the person who can recognize the problem, take a breath, and start doing useful things, this is where you start.
