Scheduling Group Training Across Shifts and Locations

The workbook opens with an Instructions sheet, followed by these working sheets. It stays on your device: nothing is uploaded or sent.

• Sites and shifts: one row for each shift at each site, with the people on that shift, the trained responders on it now, the number of trained responders your own emergency plan requires on duty, the site contact, and site access and room notes.
• Session groups: one row for each group, with its course, pathway, site, shift, session window, and participants. It shows the QKC Health class name to use on every list, how many trained responders would be left on duty while the group trains, a coverage check, and a group check.
• Make-up list: anyone who has not finished the AHA online part in time, misses the session, or needs another option, with a suggested next step, the step you agreed, an owner, and a status.

What the checks say

• No trained responder left on shift: adjust means every trained responder on that shift would be in training at the same time.
• Below your plan's coverage: adjust means fewer trained responders would stay on duty than the number you entered from your plan.
• Below 3: confirm with QKC means the group is under the minimum in QKC Health's Terms of Service. ACLS groups are not flagged, because ACLS is available to individual participants.
• Course or pathway: confirm with QKC means the combination does not match a class QKC Health lists, or it is still marked Not sure yet.
• OK means the row passes the workbook's checks. It is not a booking, and it does not show that a plan meets any requirement.

Other words point to a typo or a missing number, such as a site spelled differently on two sheets. Use initials or first names, record no health details, and store the file where only the people who plan training can see it.

List who must stay on duty

For each shift, write down the people who cannot all be away at the same time:

• trained responders named in your emergency or first aid plan;
• clinical staff needed for patient care;
• key-holders, and anyone who opens, closes, or controls access to the building;
• anyone else the shift cannot run without, such as the person who answers the main phone.

Never send every trained responder, every clinical person, or every key-holder on a shift to the same session. Split them across sessions so some stay on duty each time.

Use your own plan's number for each shift

Keep at least the coverage your own emergency plan requires on each shift while a group trains. Your plan decides the number; this guide and the worksheet only help you check it, session by session. If two groups from the same shift train at the same time, count the trained responders in both.

If you use the American Heart Association's Cardiac Emergency Response Plan template, our workplace AED readiness toolkit walks through its response team guidance. The template suggests a team of at least 5 people or 10% of staff, says a robust trained team matters because of periodic absences and staff turnover, and says team members should be able to step away from their tasks when the plan is activated, or have someone cover for them. A training session is a planned absence, so check it the same way.

OSHA's first aid best practices guide, which is advisory and creates no new legal obligations, suggests estimating emergency medical response times for every location and for every time of day and night that workers are on duty, and using that information when planning a first aid program. It also suggests reviewing the program periodically and updating training to account for changes in worksite locations and worker schedules. Whether your workplace must have trained responders, and how many, depends on the rules that apply to you; see Workplace CPR and First Aid Requirements: What to Verify.

Ways to protect coverage

• Split responders across sessions. If several trained responders on one shift need renewal, place them in different sessions so some remain on duty each time.
• Arrange cover. Bring in cover from another shift or site for the length of the session. Paid time and cover are internal costs; Group CPR Training Costs: Budgeting and Comparing Quotes shows how to budget for them.
• Renew before cards run out. The AHA says course completion cards are valid for two years through the end of the month in which they were issued. A responder whose card runs out while waiting for a group date may no longer count as trained under your plan, so build renewal groups around the earliest dates. How to Track Employee CPR, BLS and ACLS Renewals explains how to keep those dates.
• Ask about the session pattern. Back-to-back sessions at one site, or one group split across dates, can keep more people on duty. Ask us whether either can be arranged for your courses and sites before you plan around it; nothing is set until we confirm it in writing.

Healthcare teams also have to protect patient care; see Planning BLS and ACLS Group Training for Healthcare Teams.

When the AHA online part is not finished

A skills session is only for people who have finished the AHA online part. The AHA says students who complete the HeartCode online part receive a certificate of completion, which they must present to enter an instructor-led skills session. QKC Health's BLS Skills Session page says that without the online course you need the full BLS Provider course instead. Its ACLS Skills Session page says that without proof of completing the online part you cannot take part in skills testing, and points to the ACLS Provider and ACLS Renewal classes.

For each skills session group:

• ask everyone to finish the online part well before the session and send you their completion certificate before your seven-day checkpoint;
• move anyone who cannot finish in time to the make-up list: they finish the online part before a later skills session, or move to a full course group;
• Ask us which option fits each person, and make any change before the seven-day mark.

When someone misses the session

Under QKC Health's Terms of Service, participants who do not attend a group class do not reduce the confirmed group fee, and if fewer people attend than the confirmed minimum, the confirmed minimum is invoiced. Before your seven-day checkpoint, check leave, vacations, and shift swaps against each session date, so the people on each list can actually attend.

When someone misses a session anyway:

• add them to the make-up list with the course they still need;
• if they were renewing, check the month their current card runs through, since the AHA says cards are valid through the end of that month;
• Ask us about options, such as joining a later session you have already planned;
• give the person a new date only after we confirm it in writing.

Do not promise a make-up date, a waitlist, or a place in another session. Those depend on what QKC Health can confirm.

When someone attends but does not complete

Attending is not the same as completing. Under QKC Health's Terms of Service, course completion and certification depend on meeting the AHA performance requirements during training. Add anyone who did not complete to the make-up list and ask us about next steps. After the Class: Course Cards and Team Training Records covers completion records.

Keep one make-up list

Keep a single list for every site, with the person or their initials, the course they still need, the reason (online part not finished, absent, or another reason), the next step, and who owns it. Record only what you need: Absent is enough, with no health details. Review the list at each checkpoint and send it with your next request to QKC Health. For sign-in sheets and attendance on the day, see Hosting a Group Class: Setup and Participant Preparation.