Abstract P193: A Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training Program for Family Members of In-Hospital Patients at Risk for Cardiac Arrest

Abstract

Background: Resuscitation from cardiac arrest often depends on prompt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from the lay public, yet bystander CPR rates in the US are low. One barrier to bystander CPR delivery is that most arrests occur in the home, where only family members may be available to provide care. Little data exist regarding the ability to target and train family members of “at-risk” patients in CPR. Objective: We sought to implement a CPR video self-instruction (VSI) program for family members of in-hospital patients at risk for cardiac arrest. After training in situ before hospital discharge, we tested the hypothesis that at-risk patient family members would be motivated to secondarily train others in the home after leaving the hospital setting. Methods: Family members of patients hospitalized for cardiac conditions at one tertiary-care hospital between 12/07 and 6/08 who met pre-defined inclusion criteria were offered CPR VSI training requiring 25–30 min. All trainees were assessed for skill competence and video recorded for analysis. Trainees were encouraged to take the VSI kit home, and follow-up surveys were conducted to gauge secondary training of other family members. Results: Among 36 enrollees, mean age (SD) was 50 (13) and 78% of trainees were female; only 17% had been CPR trained within the past 10 years, and 44% had never been trained. Most (67%) of the trainees were either children or spouses of the at-risk hospitalized patients. Most (78%) trainees rated their experience with learning CPR via VSI as “comfortable” or “very comfortable”. During 2 min of CPR skills assessment, mean (SD) chest compression rate was 100 (19), mean percentage (SD) adequate depth was 89% (15%), and mean (SD) time for two breaths was 10.8 (4.6) sec. Follow-up surveys revealed that 33% of recipients performed secondary training at home, with a mean (SD) of 1.8 (1.3) secondary trainees. Conclusions: CPR VSI training for family members of hospitalized cardiac patients may serve as a cost-effective model to disseminate resuscitation skills and allows for secondary training in the home of patients at risk for sudden cardiac arrest.