Baseline Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Skill Performance of Nursing Students is Improved After One Resuscitation Quality Improvement Skill Refresher

Kardong-Edgren et al. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development. 2020; 36(2), 57-62

Importance of Conclusion

Less than half of 467 nursing students who had previously completed a CPR instructor-led course could adequately demonstrate the skills of compressions and ventilation. After one training session with RQI, learners showed significant improvements in being able to demonstrate both skills.

Key Points

  • Nursing students in this study had recently completed a CPR course with an instructor and received BLS certification but, when measured objectively, were not able to meet AHA guidelines for correct demonstration of compressions and ventilations.
  • Post a traditional BLS course, only 59% of nursing students demonstrated correct compression depth and 42% demonstrated correct compression rate. Overall compression scores increased by 81% post one RQI training session.
  • Overall ventilation scores with the use of a bag-mask device increased by 273% (19% to 70%) after one RQI training session. This includes the ability to demonstrate adequate volume increasing by 30% and learners decreasing their ventilation rate from a pretest mean of 24.86/min to a posttest mean of 13.90/min.
  • Learner outcomes in this study support prior research that indicates CPR skills are difficult to master and retain without frequent guided expert practice.

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