Despite having worked professionally as a nurse for the past 17 years and holding a variety of leadership positions within Memorial Regional Hospital’s emergency department, it’s a volunteer role Caitlyn Iles has taken on of which she is most proud.
“Dr. Eric Bassan and I started the Hollywood H.E.R.O. (Health Education and Response Outreach) program to teach the city’s residents cardiopulmonary resuscitation,” said Iles, the program’s nursing director. “Our hands-on training shows how an individual can use CPR to help save the life of someone whose heart has stopped beating.”
Iles, who joined Memorial Regional Hospital’s ER in 2015 and chairs her unit’s practice council, can see the impact H.E.R.O. is having in real time, with the percentage of bystander’s performing CPR in Hollywood climbing from 29% to 36% in the time since training first began in October 2024.
