The rural CPR outreach project: Medical students teach bystander CPR to secondary school students

Introduction: Prompt bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can double the chance of cardiac arrest survival. Rural and remote communities experience longer emergency service wait times and have lower rates of bystander-CPR compared to their urban counterparts. Our study addresses this disparity. Methods: We designed a 1.5-h free hands-only CPR course tailored to secondary school students in rural and remote communities taught by medical students. We evaluated our course using pre-test and post-test surveys. Results: We taught over 300 secondary students in 5 days. Less than one-third of students had previously taken a CPR course. We found that brief CPR instruction taught by medical students was effective in both improving students' knowledge of CPR (t[528] = -26, P < 0.01) and perceived comfort in performing CPR (t[548] = -12, P < 0.01). Conclusion: CPR courses taught by medical students are effective, low cost, and may help address regional health care disparities. Teaching CPR to rural/remote communities may have secondary benefits such as promoting health care careers to rural youth. We encourage other health professional programmes to consider engaging students in CPR outreach projects.