A comparative study of pediatric basic life support course for motivated laypersons and health-care personnel

Abstract

Background: Indian academy of pediatrics basic life support (IAP BLS) group runs BLS courses both with and without certification through accredited centers. The certification courses test both BLS and choking skills for all ages. This study is about work at an IAP-accredited BLS training center which runs certificate courses for health-care personnel (HCP) and laypersons (LPs). Majority of LPs were combatants who had few weeks' training in first aid as part of a regularly conducted first aid course among combatants. The LPs who were keen to acquire BLS certification undergo the certification after a 10-h precourse. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of data about HCPs and LPs from 12 certificate course sessions dating from April 2015 to October 2017. The LPs underwent a 14-question bilingual multiple choice questions (MCQ)-based pretest followed by a 10 h precourse. The HCPs underwent the same before the certificate course without a precourse. The posttest was MCQ based as part of the course. The skill testing was done after the posttest. The BLS manual (IAP BLS manual, 2nd Edition) was made available to the participants at least 2 weeks before the certificate course. A Hindi translation of the manual was made available to the LPs, if needed. Results: There was statistically significant difference between the pre- and post-test scores of HCP and LP groups. The improvement was more pronounced in younger age in both groups of participants. Conclusions: The study highlights the efficacy of an instructor-led precourse with blended learning to aid in the training of motivated LPs to successfully complete a BLS course in pediatrics on par with health-care persons in a low-resource setting.