Chest compression quality and retention of skills in basic life support training given to medical school year 5 students

OBJECTIVES: Sudden cardiac arrest is a significant cause of cardiovascular death. Basic life support (BLS) practitioners need training to provide effective, quality interventions. This study investigates the effectiveness of curriculum-based BLS training and measures the students’ performance levels...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ramazan Sivil, Özlem Yiğit, Süleyman İbze, Erkan Göksu, Yeşim Şenol
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2025-07-01
Series:Turkish Journal of Emergency Medicine
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Online Access:https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/tjem.tjem_271_24
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Summary:OBJECTIVES: Sudden cardiac arrest is a significant cause of cardiovascular death. Basic life support (BLS) practitioners need training to provide effective, quality interventions. This study investigates the effectiveness of curriculum-based BLS training and measures the students’ performance levels before and after training and their skill retention over time. METHODS: A total of 70 students were selected as the study population. Before their emergency medicine (EM) clerkship, participants performed BLS with 30 compressions and two rescue breaths on a simulation manikin (Measurement 1). Early posttraining skills were reassessed within the 1st week after clerkship (Measurement 2), and skill retention was evaluated after 9 months (Measurement 3). All measurements were done by a single observer using the same manikin. RESULTS: Of the 70 enrolled students, 64 completed the study. Significant improvements were observed in overall cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), compression, and ventilation scores posttraining and at 9 months (P < 0.05). Among 34 participants who performed ≥3 CPRs, posttraining and 9-month scores remained stable (P = 0.238). No significant change was found in compression scores among nonperformers (P = 0.982), and intergroup comparisons showed no statistical difference (P = 0.977; P = 0.900). CONCLUSION: BLS training provided to medical faculty 5th-year students in the EM clerkship program increased the effectiveness of chest compression, and this skill did not regress within 9 months.
ISSN:2452-2473