Preparedness for cardiopulmonary resuscitation in primary care

Objective - To evaluate preparedness for resuscitation of patients in cardiac arrest in primary care. Design - Questionnaire study sent to every health centre in Finland (n=277). Setting - Primary care. Main outcome measures - Resuscitation training frequency and prevalence of automated external defibrillators and nurse-performed early defibrillation. Results - One-hundred-and-forty-one health centres (51%) responded to the survey. Fifty-nine percent had appointed one person to be in charge of resuscitation training. The nurses in these health centres were trained to defibrillate (p<0.001), physicians had advanced life support training (p<0.001) and the first defibrillation was likely to be performed by a nurse on the ward (p<0.01) of often. In 87% of health centres, it was not customary to defibrillate before the physician arrived beside the patient. Forty-four percent of the health centres used only manual defibrillators, 26% used automated external defibrillators and 30% used both. Only 18% of respondents considered resuscitation training in their health centre to be sufficient and systematic. Conclusion - Resuscitation training appears insufficient and non-systematic in most health centres in Finland. Automated external defibrillators are not in common use. In health centres with an appointed person in charge of resuscitation training, the training is more often regular.