An innovative approach to teaching resuscitation skills

Figures & data

Table

Practice points
• ACLS training may not fully prepare house officers to resuscitate patients.
• An exercise that stresses the mechanical skills of resuscitation increases a house officer's perception of competence.
• Stressing the importance of team leadership during resuscitation can increase a house officer's comfort as a resuscitation leader.
• Proper training in resuscitation needs to focus on both knowledge and practical skills.
• House officers may not possess simple skills such as the proper placement of cardioversion pads during resuscitation, setting the correct joules for cardioversion, connecting pads to the cardioversion unit, or establishing a team leader during resuscitation.

Figure 1. Questionnaire completed by each house officer pre- and post-exercise. House officers circled the number best describing their comfort level before and after they participated in the exercise. Questionnaires were collected anonymously. An answer was not totaled if it could not be read clearly (e.g., if the circle included two numbers).

Table 1.  Questionnaire results. Values represent responses and proportion of total respondents for each question, n(%). The number of house staff who responded is shown in the totals row. AED = automatic electronic defibrillator

	Using an AED		Attaching defibrillator leads/paddles to read a cardiac rhythm		Delivering unsynchronized shocks		Implementing the pacing function on a defibrillator		Being a code leader
	Pre	Post	Pre	Post	Pre	Post	Pre	Post	Pre	Post
Very uncomfortable	3(4.6)	0(0)	4(6.3)	0(0)	4(6.2)	0(0)	8(12.7)	0(0)	13(20.3)	4(6.1)
Somewhat uncomfortable	18(27.7)	1(1.5)	17(26.5)	3(14.5)	20(30.8)	2(3.0)	2031.7)	2(3.0)	19(29.7)	17(26.2)
Somewhat comfortable	32(49.2)	21(31.8)	32(50.0)	27(40.9)	27(40.9)	28(41.8)	24(38.1)	35(53.0)	24(37.5)	23(35.4)
Very comfortable	12(18.5)	44(66.7)	11(17.2)	36(54.6)	36(54.6)	37(55.2)	11(17.5)	29(44.0)	8(12.5)	21(32.3)
Totals	65	66	64	66	65	67	63	66	64	65

Figure 2. Comparison of difference in house staff responses to the five questions pre- and post-exercise. Values within each bar represent the combined percentage of residents responding positively overall (‘somewhat comfortable’ and ‘very comfortable’). White and grey bars correspond to pre- and post-exercise responses, respectively. Favorable responses increased within each group following the educational exercise, indicating improvement in resident perception of performance. AED = automatic electronic defibrillator.