Are Student Manuals Really Necessary?

Yes, yes, and yes. If you are taking an American Heart Association (AHA) course and will be receiving certification, your instructor is required to ensure that you have a personal copy of the course student manual for use during the class and for reference afterward (AHA Program Administration Manual, p. 35). This is an AHA requirement for certification. If you do not have a book, you are not eligible to receive a certification card. It's that simple. Students can either bring their own copy of the student manual to class or purchase one from the instructor. Some instructors even include the student manual in the price of the class. Instructors are not allowed to loan or rent books to students.

This is not a new requirement...so, why haven't you heart about it? Because many instructors do not abide by this AHA policy in order to cut costs. This hurts both students and other instructors. How? First of all students are not receiving the full curriculum as it was meant to be taught and this invalidates the certification card. This is stated on the card itself (see below).

This also hurts instructors who are trying to run their their businesses ethically. They either lose business to instructors that can offer the classes for a lower price because they are not incurring the cost of student manuals OR they may try to stay competitive with those unethical instructors and not compensate themselves fairly for the cost of the class.

Please, please, please help support instructors who work hard to provide you with quality instruction and legitimate certification.

To report CPR certification fraud please contact the American Heart Association at: 1-877-AHA-4CPR (1-877-242-4277) or send email to ahainstructornetwork@heart.org