Cardiopulmonary resuscitation retention training for hospital nurses by a self-learner skill station or the traditional instructor led course: A randomised controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: Intrahospital cardiac arrest has a steep mortality and high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is essential for favourable outcome. Instructor led (IL) CPR training is resource demanding and instructor free, feedback providing CPR skill stations (SS) could provide a means to enable the needed frequent retraining. The main objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that there was no difference between IL and SS training. METHODS: A total of 129 hospital nurses were randomised to CPR retraining in three groups; skill station with retraining at 2 months (SS-R), skill station without retraining (SS) and instructor led training (IL). Participants were tested at baseline, 2 and 8 months. The skill station groups were combined (c-SS) for analysis at baseline and 2 months when comparing to IL. RESULTS: Baseline characteristics for the three groups differed significantly, however c-SS and IL groups performed equally at baseline and testing at 2 months. At 8 months the SS group performed 71% correct ventilations compared to 54% in the IL group (p = 0.04), but CPR quality was otherwise equal. Longitudinal analysis showed SS-R performed 3.4 mm deeper compressions at final evaluation compared to baseline (p = 0.02) and 2.8 mm deeper compared to 2-month test (p = 0.02). No effects of retraining at 2 months could be detected at final comparison of SS-R and SS groups. CONCLUSION: CPR training using a skill station led to equal performance at 2 and 8 months compared to instructor led training. Feedback-providing skill stations could be a feasible tool for required frequent retraining.