UT Police Officer Grant Kessler faced an emergency on an ordinary summer day that became a fight to save a man’s life. Thanks in part to training from the School of Nursing, Kessler responded quickly and confidently during a medical distress call to support the life-saving measures.
There are few courses offered by the School of Nursing that have had as tangible and direct effect as its American Heart Association-certified (AHA) training course.
Kessler took an instructor course with the School of Nursing earlier this year.
“I responded to an individual who was not breathing,” Kessler said. “I got help from some passers-by to get him out of the car. I gave him CPR and used an AED. Finally, trained medical people arrived to take him to the hospital.”
Kessler isn’t the only person who has been helped by this training. DeAnna Baker, who serves as Senior Academic Program Coordinator with the School of Nursing, said other lives have been saved thanks to the AHA courses the school teaches around Austin, which includes certifying people like Kessler, who in turn has trained others in life-saving procedures.
“We’re not only an authorized AHA training center, but we also provide instructor certification,” she said. “We teach others basic life support, and they’ve become instructors themselves.”
At UTPD, Kessler is one of five officers to receive the certification from the School of Nursing. Those five are now more than halfway through the department’s goal of training every officer on the UT police force with these life-saving skills.
The program started in 2017 as a way of training nursing students on life-saving techniques but has since expanded into the Austin community.
Baker said the school trained nearly 1,800 people in 2025 in life-saving techniques, including tourniquets and stopping blood loss in addition to CPR. The demand has been even greater this year, with more than 1,200 people trained in the first half of 2026.
There are many jobs that also require certification, said Juan Rocha, who serves as the school’s training center coordinator. “It’s required for lifeguards, daycares, and so many others,” he said. “We have over 100 instructors. When you get life-saving skills, it benefits the whole community.”
Kessler said the training courses are thorough and intense enough that he didn’t feel nervous about using CPR to save a life. He felt confident enough that he was able to focus on the task at hand.
“It felt good,” he said. “It’s a great feeling. I appreciate the School of Nursing working with us. I felt prepared and I was just doing my job. That’s what I wanted to do; that’s why I’m here.”
Learn about AHA Certification Courses offered by the UT Austin School of Nursing.