Minutes count! Someone who is severely bleeding can bleed to death in as little as 5 minutes. That’s why bleeding control—keeping the blood inside the body—is the purpose of STOP THE BLEED® training.
Most STOP THE BLEED® courses last no more than 90 minutes. A formal presentation is followed by hands-on practice of applying direct pressure, packing a wound, and using a tourniquet to stop bleeding.
Typically, there is no charge for most STOP THE BLEED® courses. However, sometimes expenses are incurred to hold one. Check with your local instructors to see if there is a fee for their courses. All of our instructors volunteer their time and expertise to teach STOP THE BLEED® training.
The STOP THE BLEED® website contains upcoming courses. Use our Find a Course tool to search for one that’s near you. Courses are updated on a regular basis, so you can check back again if you don’t find a course that matches your schedule or is close by. If you don’t find a course in your town or city, try searching by zip code or state.
STOP THE BLEED® is a grassroots effort. If you don’t see a course available near you, contact your local hospital and ask for one to be held in your local community.
It’s easy to set up a STOP THE BLEED® course for your local group. There are tens of thousands of instructors around the U.S. and world. You can find someone nearby to come teach a course for your group by contacting stopthebleed@facs.org.
The lecture portion of the STOP THE BLEED® course is now available virtually. Use our Find a Course tool to search for upcoming classes. The skills portion of the STOP THE BLEED® course is still an in-person requirement to complete the course.
Please reach out to the instructor of your course for a copy of your STOP THE BLEED® course completion certificate.
After taking a STOP THE BLEED® course at his school, a student in Texas was able to save a friend’s life by putting the skills he learned into action.
The successful use of tourniquets in Afghanistan and Iraq helped lead to a resurgence of tourniquets in the civilian world so that anyone can help if they come across someone who is severely wounded.
A quick-thinking volunteer emergency medical technician was able to use a nearby STOP THE BLEED kit to help save a man with a severe bleeding injury.
The medical team at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station recently hosted the first STOP THE BLEED® course in Antarctica. The research team at the South Pole Station is in isolation in an extreme environment for 10 months out of the year and lack consistent connectivity to access up-to-date medical resources.
Elected officials at the state and national levels have taken notice of the life-saving potential of STOP THE BLEED®. We have trained numerous members of Congress, state officials, and their staff members on how to STOP THE BLEED®.
A bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate to expand access to bleeding control kits and several states around the U.S. have enacted legislation that takes into account the core principles of the STOP THE BLEED® campaign.