Brief compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator course for secondary school students: a multischool feasibility study

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a 2-hour compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator (CO-CPRAED) course in secondary school students. DESIGN: Prospective pre-post feasibility study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 128 students (12–15 years old) without prior basic life support (BLS) training at four secondary schools in Hong Kong. All students were followed up at 3 months after training. INTERVENTIONS: Emergency medicine-trained nurse and physicians taught the 2-hour CO-CPRAED course using the American Heart Association ‘CPR in School Training Kit’ programme. Students were trained in groups up to 40 students/session, with an instructor to student ratio not exceeding 1:10. To practise hands-on compressions, the manikin to student ratio was 1:1. For a simulated cardiac arrest, the manikin and AED to student ratio was 1:10. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: CPR and AED knowledge, attitude statements towards bystander CPR and AED, quality of BLS performance skills during training and at 3 months. RESULTS: Some students (46%) knew how deep to push on an adult chest when doing CO-CPR before training. The course was associated with an increase in knowledge score (pretraining 55%, post-training 93%; adjusted mean difference (MD) 38%, 95% CI 33% to 43%; p<0.001). Most students (68%) thought that CPR education in senior secondary school was essential before training. The students had a very positive attitude towards CPR; no change in the mean (SD) attitude score out of 30 over time (pretraining 27.2 (2.5), post-training 27.6 (2.7); adjusted MD 0.5, 95% CI −0.1 to 1.0; p=0.132). Most students were competent in performing BLS immediately after training (77%) and at 3 months (83%) (adjusted MD 6%, 95% CI −4% to 15%; p=0.268). CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate the feasibility of scaling up the number of secondary schools trained in a brief CO-CPRAED course within the local school curriculum.