Nurses are more efficient than doctors in teaching basic life support and automated external defibrillator in nurses

Background: Cardiac arrest (CA) is a leading cause of death worldwide. The European Resuscitation Council (ERC) has developed basic life support/automated external defibrillation (BLS/AED) courses for uniform training in out-of-hospital CA. Objective: The present study compares the resuscitation skills of two groups of nursing staff, one taught by newly trained ERC nurse-instructors and the other by newly trained doctor-instructors. Method: Eighteen doctors and 18 nurses were asked to teach a total of 108 nurses in a (BLS/AED) course. One month after its completion, all 108 nurses were asked to be re-evaluated, with the use of the objective structured clinical examination. Conclusions: No statistical significant difference between the two groups was noted in the written test, in contrast with data collected from the practice skills checklist. Nurses in group A could easily identify the patient in cardiac arrest but had difficulties concerning chest compressions and handling the AED. Nurses in group B were more focused during the performances, used AED more accurately and continued cardiopulmonary resuscitation with no delays. Nurses prove to be more efficient in training nurses. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.