Retention of Basic Life Support skills after multiple short training sessions followed by assessment and feedback in a self-learning station.Status: PendingCategory: Education

Abstract

Introduction The European Resuscitation Council recommends regular assessments to identify individuals requiring additional resuscitation training. We have applied this principle to develop an automated learning strategy of multiple short training sessions followed by assessment and feedback in a self-learning (SL) station for initial skill acquisition. Methods A software program was developed allowing structured training, assessment and feedback of pharmacy and educational sciences students in a SL station without instructor. Initial training (max. 40 minutes) consisted of a practice-while-watching video followed by computer exercises with voice feedback. Before and after training, performance was measured using an automated two minutes test. To be judged competent, students had to achieve ≥70% compressions with depth ≥50 mm and ≥70% compressions with complete release (<5 mm) and a compression rate between 100-120/min. Instant feedback and feed-forward was provided after the test and failed students had to retrain within 2 weeks. Retraining (max. 20 minutes and max. three times) was done with voice feedback exercises. Before retraining the previous test result was displayed together with feed-up. After five months all students were invited for a retention test. Results During a two months period 404 students were trained. After a maximum of four sessions, 99% (401/404) of all students achieved competency. The three remaining students received additional instructor-facilitated retraining. After five months 48% (137/288) was still competent (113/401 students were lost for follow-up). The percentage competent participants was 80% (230/288) for compression depth, 97% (279/288) for complete release and 60% (172/288) for mean rate. Conclusions A maximum of four short SL sessions led to competency in 99% of participants. After five months, retention of compression depth and complete release was very high. However, overall competency was maintained in only 50% of the students, indicating the importance of regular assessment and retraining.