In a study of visitors to the
University of Cincinnati (UC) Medical Center emergency department,
researchers found that adults who said they had been trained to do
cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performed no better in several
important CPR measures than those who said they’d never had training.
In
the study, researchers with UC’s Department of Emergency Medicine
approached 50 non-patient emergency department visitors to train them in
doing compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CCPR).
Compression-only CPR is recommended by the American Heart Association as
the best way to keep someone alive after their heart stops until
paramedics arrive because it is easier to remember and does not require
"mouth to mouth” breathing.
Before
training, participants filled out a questionnaire about their previous
CPR training and confidence of performing CPR. Then they spent 60
seconds performing CPR on a training mannequin and were judged on six
components of CPR performance before getting CCPR training.
Participants
were measured on the following components: checking the patient for
responsiveness, calling for help/911, beginning chest compressions
immediately and correct hand placement, compression depth and
compression rate.
Among
the group, 60 percent of participants reported previous CPR training.
While those participants performed more components correctly, no one
performed all CPR measures correctly and there was no significant
difference in performance between participants with and without prior
training.
Researchers also found that correct compression rate and depth were very poor.
"The
most effective chest compressions are done at around 100 per minute and
are 2 inches deep. Although traditional CPR classes emphasize pushing
hard and fast, our subjects almost universally pushed too slow and too
soft. Adequate compressions are the most important components of CPR to
keep oxygenated blood going to the brain,” says Jason McMullan, MD,
assistant professor of emergency medicine at UC and one of the study’s
investigators.
Finally,
the study found that prior training did not lead to participants
reporting a higher confidence or likeliness to perform CPR if needed.
"Bystander
CPR can triple the chances of survival after out-of-hospital cardiac
arrest. We found that there is a desperate need to train or retrain
people better because the current way of training doesn’t obviously
increase their skills or confidence. Without getting better training out
there, people will continue to die needlessly from cardiac arrest,”
says Jennifer Sayegh, the study’s lead investigator.
The team presented their abstract, "Individuals Who Self-Report Previous CPR Training Do Not Demonstrate Higher Performance Confidence or Accuracy,” at theSociety for Academic Emergency Medicine annual meeting May 14-18 in Atlanta. Co-authors include McMullan, Sayegh, Kimberly Ward Hart and Christopher Lindsell, PhD.
Source: University of Cincinnati
Source: University of Cincinnati
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In a study of visitors to the University of Cincinnati (UC) Medical Center emergency department, researchers found that adults who said they had been tra...