Best Practices of Basic Life Support Training in Undergraduate Medical Education: A Guide to Medical Teachers

Abstract

Basic life support (BLS) is an essential clinical skill that needs to be mastered by graduating medical officers as potential first responders in clinical settings. Inadequate resuscitation skills of healthcare professionals in BLS have been identified as contributing to poor prognosis in cardiac arrest victims. Thus, BLS training has been incorporated into undergraduate medical curricula using various instructional methods to equip their graduates with BLS skills. Despite such training, medical students and junior doctors were found to be under-competent in delivering BLS primarily due to different methods of instruction utilised in BLS training as opposed to simulation-based training, which is identified as the gold standard in BLS training. It is recommended that simulation-based BLS training be conducted, giving more weight to the skill component, in small groups of 3–10 students, complemented by yearly refresher courses and just-in-time training. This article aims to build awareness and inform medical teachers and programme directors on the current best practices of BLS training in undergraduate medical education.