Which
level of
CPR should a person have?
Official answer: Ask your insurance company.
Personal answer:
Being a
CPR instructor I encourage everyone to obtain
Professional/BLS Certification. There's a few different reasons but...
You learn
Adult, Child, Infant and 2-Person
CPR. whereas for workplace you only learn Adult-single rescuer.
The 2-person
CPR is critical, and not taught in the
CPR for the Workplace courses. The reason it is critical is
CPR wears you out. Even doing
CPR for 5 minutes will leave you exhausted and the ambulance for most metro areas can take up to 20 minutes. Knowing how to transition between people can help fill the gap.
Also the technique for performing Professional
CPR is much better, though it is nothing you can'
t handle.
The cost is the exact same (unless the individual instructor wishes to charge a little more)
The time commitment is officially 8 hours, though most classes get out early.
Kind of a no-brainer in my
book.
As for
ETCP, you don't want to be certified just because you can pass a test. If you don't have significant real-world experience and EXTREMELY STRONG aptitude in Rigging or Electrics I would personally recommend you wait.
With
IATSE Every local office is very different from every other local office. Go introduce yourself, work a couple gigs with them and make your own opinion, do this as early as possible as they usually have a seniority based
system, so might as well establish your seniority while you're in school then once you've graduated. Also get to know the people and discover for yourself if it is advantageous to become a member of your local or not. I just hit my 10th anniversary with
IATSE 31 this may. There's things I like and things I don't like; but you get that with every business. If you decide to become a member it is largely frowned upon to scab which means to work non-union shows; some unions will fire you for this. You will want to clarify the rules with your local and most likely get prior approval for every non-union show (including no-pay volunteer shows) you wish to participate in that are located within their geographic jurisdiction.