Chest compression quality and retention of skills in basic life support training given to medical school year 5 students.

OBJECTIVES

Sudden cardiac arrest is a significant cause of cardiovascular death. Basic life support (BLS) practitioners need training to provide effective, quality interventions. This study investigates the effectiveness of curriculum-based BLS training and measures the students' performance levels before and after training and their skill retention over time.

METHODS

A total of 70 students were selected as the study population. Before their emergency medicine (EM) clerkship, participants performed BLS with 30 compressions and two rescue breaths on a simulation manikin (Measurement 1). Early posttraining skills were reassessed within the 1 week after clerkship (Measurement 2), and skill retention was evaluated after 9 months (Measurement 3). All measurements were done by a single observer using the same manikin.

RESULTS

Of the 70 enrolled students, 64 completed the study. Significant improvements were observed in overall cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), compression, and ventilation scores posttraining and at 9 months ( < 0.05). Among 34 participants who performed ≥3 CPRs, posttraining and 9-month scores remained stable ( = 0.238). No significant change was found in compression scores among nonperformers ( = 0.982), and intergroup comparisons showed no statistical difference ( = 0.977; = 0.900).

CONCLUSION

BLS training provided to medical faculty 5-year students in the EM clerkship program increased the effectiveness of chest compression, and this skill did not regress within 9 months.