Just a quick point. The pulse at the wrist is the radial pulse, the carotid pulse is in the neck.

I don't know what the current prococol is in the US, but here in Britain lay responders are being taught to use skin colour as the main indicator of circulation rather than taking a pulse.

IIRC 2/3 of all attempted resus by non medical profesionals is either friend or family, so it would be a good idea to make sure your family and close friends take a CPR course.

Rather than CPR when you do your DL, I'd like to see it taught in schools. I'm going to do just this with a collegue of mine in a coulpe of days. Young children tend to pick up the skills alot quicker than adults and are more likely to call 999 (or 911) quicker than an adult.