Abstract 465: PERC: A 23 Years Experience of Disseminating BLS Techniques in Underserved Areas

Abstract

Background: Ischemic heart disease is the main cause of mortality in Brazil. Sudden cardiac death is often the initial presentation of a myocardial infarction, however Basic Life Support (BLS) undertraining is real not only for lay rescuers but for health care providers in Brazil. A group of medical students from the Universidade Federal do Ceara (UFC) founded in 1996 the Cardiorespiratory Resuscitation Education Program (PERC) with a goal of disseminating BLS techniques. Objective: Emphasize the importance of creating social projects to propagate BLS techniques in underserved populations. Methods: An experience of over 23 years of BLS training with a non profit medical student group in the northeast of Brazil will be reported. Results/Discussion: The group is formed by students from the first to the last year of the UFC medical school. They are trained by cardiology faculties and senior members on the most recent ILCOR guidelines for BLS. A member usually stays in the program for two or three years and during this time is responsible to facilitate free classes in schools, public hospitals, health centers and medical schools. These courses are based on one lecture followed by a hands on training on CPR manikins. Pre and post testing are applied to evaluate satisfaction and learning. With 23 years of experience, a total of 11,841 people were directly trained by our program: 4.626 lay rescuers, 3.124 medical/nursing students and 4.091 health providers. A satisfaction rate is above 95%. The impact of this program in our community is immeasurable. Conclusion: Even though these courses don’t replace the official AHA-BLS training, nonprofit organizations as PERC can play an important role in communities with limited resources, helping to disseminate BLS techniques and maybe decreasing the mortality and morbidity associated with the sudden cardiac death in those areas.