Our Story
From Our Dorm to Your Town
All About Code One
Our Mission is to prepare rescuers with the skills and knowledge they need to save lives.
Code One Training Solutions is a nurse- and family-owned business committed to providing high quality health and safety training to all learners. We recognize there are widespread problems in the CPR and emergency response training industry; limited availability, varying quality of experience, and that learners sometimes walk away from trainings with a card, but without the confidence or competence to act in an emergency. Code One strives to meet those challenges head on, and has developed a comprehensive, flexible training program with sessions daily at each of our dozens of locations nationwide.
Our efforts began small all the way back in 2007, when Code One was founded in the UConn dorm room of Richard Shok. Rich observed that there was no easy way for his nursing school classmates to obtain their required CPR certification. Already working as a first responder and CPR instructor, Rich knew the impact that high-quality CPR and early defibrillation could have in a cardiac arrest and saw an opportunity to offer high quality training to his peers. His girlfriend Allison supported him through the process of forming Code One Training Solutions and together they held on-campus CPR training during their undergraduate careers.
Rich and Allison graduated with nursing degrees, got married, and started a family while leading the company through slow and steady growth. But it wasn’t until the Coronavirus pandemic hit in March 2020 that there were major changes to the trajectory of the business.
Forced to shut down over 90% of operations to prevent unnecessary contact, the Code One team grappled with the challenges of providing essential services, while needing to eliminate the risk of exposure inherent in in-person classes. After considering many options, they saw an opportunity to pair hospital-grade CPR training technology with individual CPR skills sessions. At the end of months of building, trialing, refining and training, BEACON by Code One was launched in December of 2020. The final result was a blended process of online coursework and 1-on-1 skills verification utilizing high-tech manikins and virtually-present instructors.
The immediate popularity and immensely positive feedback indicated that Code One had landed on a solution that not only solved quarantine logistics, but created a new pathway for high quality, easily accessible American Heart Association training to meet the learner right where they were.
Code One has grown the staff to include an incredible group of passionate employees, living across the nation and working together to support the mission of providing high-quality emergency training. The majority of our staff come to Code One with experience with hands-on patient care (including physicians, paramedics and EMTs, nurses and nurse practitioners) and all maintain a passion for providing an exemplary experience to clients.
