Assess improvements in effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills based on 2010 CPR guidelines

Objectives Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is the most important technique for the first-aid in the rescue of the patients with cardiac arrest. Many aspects in basic life supporting has been revised in the 2010 CPR guidelines. This research aims to evaluate and analyse the improvement in effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills based on 2010 CPR guidelines in emergency medicine. Methods Sixty clinical training doctors in the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, who were trained in the emergency department from August, 2010 to March, 2011, were taken as the research groups. Among them, 30 doctors assigned to the control group, entered the emergency department before 2010 CPR guidelines was published and were supposed to be trained based on 2005 CPR guidelines and the other 30 doctors assigned to the experimental group, were trained after the 2010 CPR guidelines were published and were trained based on 2010 CPR guidelines. Theory and skill- practice tests were employed to evaluate the training effectiveness after the training course was finished in both groups. Results Total scores of the experimental group are higher than those of the control group (p<0.05). The theory test scores have no significant difference between the two groups (p>0.05), while the experimental group performed better in skill-practice test (p<0.05). More prompt initiation of chest-compression and defibrillation, higher rates and superior quality of chest-compression, as well as better self-evaluation among trainees, are obtained in the experimental group (p<0.05). However, other items including self-protection awareness, airway-opening skills and ventilation quality, are similar between the two groups (p>0.05). Conclusions The study showed that training based on the revised guidelines resulted in improvement in effectiveness of basic life-support procedures in medical staff.