How to Do CPR: A Simple Beginner's Guide

CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) keeps blood and oxygen moving when someone's heart has stopped. You do not need to be perfect to help — starting CPR early gives someone the best chance while an ambulance is on its way. This is a simple beginner's guide to the steps. It is general information, not a replacement for an accredited first aid course.

What is CPR?

CPR combines chest compressions and rescue breaths to keep oxygen moving to the brain and organs until paramedics arrive or a defibrillator can be used. It is the C step of the DRSABCD action plan used across Australia.

How to do CPR, step by step

1. Check it is safe, then check for a response

Make sure the area is safe for you and the casualty. Gently squeeze their shoulders and ask loudly if they are okay. If there is no response, get ready to act.

2. Call Triple Zero (000)

Call 000 for an ambulance, or ask someone nearby to call while you stay with the casualty. Put the phone on speaker — the operator can talk you through CPR. Ask someone to find a defibrillator (AED) if one is close by.

3. Start chest compressions

Place the casualty on their back on a firm surface. Put the heel of one hand in the centre of the chest, place your other hand on top and interlock your fingers. Keep your arms straight and press down firmly about one third of the depth of the chest, then let it rise fully. Give 30 compressions.

4. Give 2 rescue breaths

Tilt the head back and lift the chin to open the airway. Pinch the nose closed, take a breath, seal your mouth over theirs and blow steadily for about one second so the chest rises. Give two breaths.

5. Keep going 30:2

Continue cycles of 30 compressions and 2 breaths. Do not stop unless the casualty starts breathing normally, a defibrillator is ready to use, or a paramedic takes over. If someone else can help, swap every two minutes so you do not tire.

Hands-only CPR

If you are unable or unwilling to give rescue breaths, do hands-only CPR: call 000 and give continuous chest compressions at 100 to 120 a minute until help arrives. Compressions alone are far better than doing nothing.

CPR for children and babies

The basic approach is similar, but technique differs for children and babies (for example, using one hand or two fingers and gentler breaths). The best way to learn is a first aid course with a recognised provider such as St John Ambulance Australia.

When seconds count, the right information helps too

Knowing CPR helps you act for others. A MedibandPlus profile helps others act for you. It is a secure online emergency profile holding your conditions, medications, allergies and emergency contacts, so first responders can see what matters when you cannot tell them. Part of Mediband, trusted in Australia since 2004.

Related reading: the full DRSABCD first aid action plan and how to set up your emergency contacts.

Getting the compressions right

Bystander CPR that is technically imperfect still saves lives, so none of this should stop you starting. But three things measurably change the outcome, and all three are easy to get wrong.

Depth

Australian guidance is to compress the lower half of the breastbone by about one third of the depth of the chest. In practice that is:

ANZCOR is explicit that too shallow is the bigger danger: inadequate compression depth is, in its words, “definitely associated with poor outcomes”. Almost everyone doing CPR for the first time pushes too gently. Commit to it.

Full recoil

This is the step nobody mentions and most people miss. Let the chest come all the way back up between every compression. Guidance is to allow complete recoil, with the pushing-down and letting-up taking about the same amount of time.

Leaning on the chest between compressions — which happens naturally as you tire — stops the heart refilling, so the next compression pumps very little. You can be doing 110 beautiful-looking compressions a minute and moving almost no blood.

Rate

100 to 120 compressions a minute, for every age. That is almost two a second, and faster than most people expect. Rates below 100 or above about 140 are both associated with lower survival — so going frantically fast is not better.

Keeping it going

Good CPR is exhausting, and quality drops long before you feel like stopping.

• Swap rescuers about every two minutes if there is anyone else there. Change during a natural pause and keep the handover to a couple of seconds.
• Minimise every interruption. Guidance is blunt that pauses in compressions must be kept as short as possible. Do not stop to re-check for a pulse, to reposition, or to talk.
• Keep going until the person responds or starts breathing normally, a defibrillator is attached and tells you to stand clear, paramedics take over, or you physically cannot continue.
• Put the phone on speaker. The 000 call taker will count with you, and you should not be choosing between compressions and the call.

Common mistakes

• Waiting to be sure. If they are unresponsive and not breathing normally, start. Occasional gasping is not normal breathing — it is a sign of cardiac arrest and one of the most commonly misread signs there is.
• Pushing too gently for fear of causing harm. A broken rib heals. A cardiac arrest without CPR usually does not.
• Leaning on the chest between compressions.
• Stopping to check for a pulse. Bystanders are unreliable at finding one, and the search wastes the time that matters.
• Waiting for the defibrillator before starting compressions. Compressions start now; the AED joins in when it arrives.
• Not calling 000 first when you are alone with an adult. Call, put it on speaker, then start.

If they start breathing again

It does happen, and it is disorienting when it does. If the person starts breathing normally or begins to respond:

• Stop compressions.
• Roll them into the recovery position to keep the airway clear.
• Stay with them and keep watching the breathing. Be ready to start again immediately if it stops or becomes abnormal — people can arrest more than once.
• Leave the defibrillator pads on if one has been attached. Do not remove them, and do not switch it off.
• Keep them warm and keep talking to them, even if they do not seem to take it in.

They still need an ambulance and hospital assessment, without exception. Coming round is not the same as being out of danger.

Afterwards, for you

Performing CPR on someone — particularly someone you know — is a genuinely distressing thing to do, and the outcome is frequently not the one you wanted. That is not a reflection of how well you did it. Cardiac arrest is survivable far more often when a bystander starts compressions than when nobody does, which is the entire reason the advice is to start even when you are unsure.

If it affects you afterwards, that is an ordinary reaction. Talk to your GP, or call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

CPR FAQs

Sources

• Australian Resuscitation Council (ANZCOR) — Basic Life Support guidelines.
• St John Ambulance Australia — CPR and first aid training.
• ANZCOR Guideline 6 — Compressions — hand position, compression depth for adults, children and infants, the 100–120 rate, full chest recoil and minimising interruptions.
• healthdirect — CPR — what CPR does, when to start it, and what to expect afterwards.
• Triple Zero (000) — calling for an ambulance, and letting the call taker coach you through compressions.

Disclaimer: This is general first aid information, not medical advice or a substitute for accredited first aid training. In an emergency, always call Triple Zero (000).