Teaching Canadian Red Cross courses is a great way to build a successful career in a rewarding field, promote safety, and enhance the patient care your organization provides!  Once certified as an instructor you can teach for any Canadian Red Cross Training Provider within Canada, and in time possibly even start your own Training Provider.

The Canadian Red Cross instructor development program follows a well defined, multiple course process to develop new instructors.  Instructor development classes are kept small, with a maximum instructor trainer to instructor candidate ratio of 1:8. This process, described below, consists of 5 steps:

 

The Instructor Development Program:

1. Pre-requisite check and skills assessment:  Instructor candidates must hold current pupil level certification at the level they wish to teach prior to enrolling in the instructor development process (16 to 124 hours of pre-requisite training depending on the desired instructor level).  Once enrolled, the first step in the program involves a face to face session where the instructor’s skills will be evaluated to ensure that they are at the instructor level (this session is approximately 4 hours long).
2. The Fundamentals of Instruction course:  Instructor Candidates will then compete a two part course called Fundamentals of Instruction.  This course focuses on the basics of adult education (pedagogy), and has both an online and a face to face component that must be completed.  The online content usually takes approximately 8 hours to complete, followed by two full days of face to face instruction (24 hours in total).
3. Discipline specific education:  Once the instructor candidate has learned “how to teach”, the next course in the program focuses on the “what to teach”.   This course, conducted over two days (16 hours), prepares the candidate for teaching the skills and knowledge found in the discipline they are pursuing instructor certification in (First Aid & CPR, Professional Responder, Psychological First Aid, etc).
4. Online mentorship prep course:  Once the classroom learning is complete, the candidate will then complete a second online course that will prepare them for their mentored teaching practicum (2 hours).
5. Teaching experience:  Finally, the Instructor candidate will complete a Teaching Experience (formally called a co-teach), where they will put their new found skills to practice while being mentored by an experienced instructor.  The candidate has up to twelve months post course to complete the Teaching Experience, and is given up to 3 opportunities to successfully complete this final stage (initial time commitment of 16 hours in most cases, but up to 48 hours if 3 attempts are necessary).

What will I learn about?

• The Red Cross
• ILCOR and guideline development
• Program specific skills
• Adult & child education theory (how people learn)
• Learning styles & the domains of learning
• Instructional techniques (how to teach)
• Effective use of instructional equipment
• Providing effective feedback
• Assessment & evaluation of skills & knowledge
• Lesson planning
• Classroom management skills
• Managing difficult student behaviours
• Cleaning & care of instructional equipment
• Organizing courses

What courses will I be able to teach?

Once certified you will be able to work actively, teaching the following courses:

• Professional Responder Instructor:  BLS, FR & EMR if the candidate enters with EMR certification, BL & FR if the candidate enters with FR certification, BLS if the candidate enters with BLS certification. 
• First Aid Instructor:  Standard first aid, Emergency first aid, CPR, Child Care first aid.
• Psychological First Aid Instructor:  Psychological first aid.

Course Completion Requirements:

Instructor development is a pass/fail process, with success dependent on:

1. Possessing the correct course pre-requisites
2. 100% attendance
3. Demonstrating all skills to the Red Cross standards
4. Full participation in all classroom components
5. The completion of multiple practice teaching presentations to the Red Cross standards
6. Passing the mentored co-teach process

How long is my certification valid for?

Canadian Red Cross Instructor certification is valid for 3 years from the start of the instructor development process.

Course Cost:

Tuition for the Canadian Red Cross instructor development program costs $750 per instructor candidate, plus the cost of course materials (varies by discipline, but usually another $250 or so).

The Red Cross mandates a minimum class size of 4 participants for this course, a minimum billing of 6 participants will apply to private group courses, and the Red Cross allows a maximum of 8 participants in each class.

Priority Care is not running individual enrolment public instructor courses at this time.

Our courses are offered on a group course basis, and are available throughout the Greater Vancouver area (Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Port Moody, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Langley, Cloverdale, Surrey, White Rock, Delta, Richmond, North Vancouver, West Vancouver) and the Fraser Valley (Mission, Aldergrove, Abbotsford, Chilliwack).

 

Booking a group course:

If you would like to book a Red Cross instructor group course for your organization please CONTACT US.