Maintenance of CPR skills among nursing students trained using Resuscitation Quality Improvement® program

Background

The Resuscitation Quality Improvement® (RQI) program is a competency-based approach that provides low dose, high frequency cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills training. Limited research has evaluated its effectiveness with nursing students who need to be prepared to respond to cardiopulmonary emergencies despite their student status and to be competent in CPR as they transition into practice.

Objective

The objective of this multisite longitudinal study was to examine the maintenance of adult and infant compressions and ventilation skills by nursing students at 3 and 6 months following practice with real-time feedback using the RQI® program.

Methods

The effectiveness of brief practice of CPR skills at the RQI® simulation station on the maintenance of skills was analyzed with 238 nursing students from six universities across the United States. Participants completed three practice sessions, at baseline (month 0), 3 months, and 6 months. At baseline, they performed compressions and ventilation with a bag-valve mask on adult and infant manikins without feedback (pretest), followed immediately by a session integrating real-time, objective feedback (both audio and visual) on their performance. CPR practice on the manikins with feedback on performance was then repeated every 3 months.

Results

Practicing CPR skills at the RQI® simulation station every 3 months with real-time feedback enabled participants to maintain their compression and ventilation skills and improve them from baseline (month 0) to 6 months. There was no loss of skills among these participants. Median scores on the first attempt to compress and ventilate stayed above the minimum 75 % overall score that learners must achieve to be considered an adequate performance.

Conclusions

This study demonstrated that brief practice of CPR skills at the RQI® simulation station every 3 months with real-time feedback was highly effective for maintaining students’ competence in compressions and ventilation. Once the RQI® program is set up in a school, students could practice on their own as needed to maintain their skills.