you legally cannot be forced to administer first aid on someone (although you may be held responsible if you do not at least call 911). i believe in most areas, you are not legally responsible if you do administer first aid and it doesn't work, but you may want to check your local laws. generally if you try to help someone in a first aid situation you won't get into trouble.

I would think that the employer could not call upon you to perform first aid unless that is specifically a part of your job description. If it is a part of your job description, the employer should monitor your certificate's expiration date to be sure you are in compliance. With respect to the Artist's reference to first aid being unsuccessful, that is not a legal issue to my knowledge in most US states. In fact, the more dangerous concern would be if you administered first aid that actually harmed the patient, such as fracturing ribs during CPR, ending up with a collapsed lung. This is not completely unheard of, and people used to get sued for it! Nowadays I believe all US states have enacted a "Good Samaritan" law, which protects those who perform first aid with good intentions, even if the patient is injured by the first aid. The caveat is that you must only perform acts that are within the range of your training and competence. In other words, you could do CPR (even with an expired certificate) without legal risk to yourself, provided you have had CPR training. You could not, however, perform a tracheostomy, unless you are a doctor, and even then it would be risky to do it! If I were you, I'd update my first aid certificate just to be safe.