I haven’t posted about this, but I have huge changes coming. And tonight I did a big thing and wanted to post an update about it.
My AHA Training Center is Portsmouth Regional Hospital. I have been aligned there since I became an instructor about 20 years ago. I have co-taught with some amazingly awesome instructors and have met some great folks. I was appointed Training Center Faculty and have taught several instructor courses.
But that is changing.
Just over a month ago HCA – Hospital Corporation of America – who owns PRH (Portsmouth Regional Hospital), announced that they are closing all their AHA Training Centers and switching to American Red Cross courses and programs. This means that in order to keep teaching AHA courses I needed to find a new Training Center.
Yes – this is an overwhelming and huge change.
So before COVID-19 I spent every spare hour researching new training centers to align with. Local TC’s, Regional TC’s, National TC’s. Everyone has different requirements, fees, and changes I’d need to make. This was a huge research project.
On a lark – because multiple people told me I was crazy to do it – I submitted a pre-application form the the AHA to make my training site a training center. And I passed the first step. I passed a compliance check and I received an email a few weeks ago to fill out the full application and submit a lot of documentation.
And then COVID-19 became an everyday word. And my kids are home with remote learning. I limited my class size to 4 and began rescheduling classes. And forgot about the application. Until a few days ago when I realized it was due on 3/25 – yes – TOMORROW.
I’ve spent 3 days working on all the paperwork, emailing instructors, creating class schedules, updating information. And I just did the scariest thing I have ever done in my business. I submitted my application to the AHA about 10 minutes ago.
Will they approve it? Maybe. I have several back up plans from my research if they don’t approve it. There is a lot more work to be done. Administrative tasks, policies to be clarified. But we’ve started to create a team to work on this. Collaboratively. This is a huge part of why I was willing to put myself out there not just for my instructional business – it’s also the other instructors in our Training Center who do amazing work training at their workplaces and in their communities. We have all worked collaboratively and have supported each other. I am so thankful for their kind emails and support during this entire paperwork and application process. I know there are more steps and hurdles to cross – but I am grateful for the overwhelming support of our local instructor community. I could not have submitted this application packet without the support of our local instructors.
I will post updates as I have them!
