Effect of Korean Advanced Life Support Education on Non-Technical and Technical Skills of Nursing Students: A Pilot Study

This study aimed to investigate the effect of the Korean Advanced Life Support (KALS) education program on the non-technical skills and technical skills of nursing students. This one-group pretest-posttest experimental study included 46 participants who were fourth year nursing students at Shinsung University located in Dangjin-si, Chungcheongnam-do Province, Republic of Korea. Data were collected in April 2021 and analyzed via SPSS/WIN 25.0, using a paired samples t-test. The current study results report a significant improvement in the non-technical skills from 30.58 to 47.16 points (t = -5.892, p < 0.001). Furthermore, KALS training improved communication confidence from 23.45 to 35.77 points (t = -6.563, p < 0.001), critical thinking tendency from 96.71 to 107.16 points (t = -3.352, p = 0.002), and self-efficacy in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation from 33.56 to 49.81 points (t = -13.242, p < 0.001). Lastly, technical skills also improved from 18.35 to 27.94 points (t = -28.439, p < 0.001). Therefore, the findings indicate that KALS education was effective in improving the non-technical and technical skills of these nursing students. However, this study did not analyze the effect of the stress level experienced by the study participants in emergency situations on their non-technical and technical skill performance. Thus, future studies should verify the effect of external stressors, caused by unpredictable emergencies, on non-technical and technical skill performance.