Medical students do not adversely affect the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation for ED patients

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the effect of medical student involvement on the quality of actual cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Methods: A digital video-recording system was used to record and analyze CPR procedures for adult patients from March 2011 to September 2012.

Results: Twenty-six student-involved and 40 non-student-involved cases were studied. The chest compression rate in the student-involved group was significantly higher than that in the non-student-involved group (P < .001). The proportion of compressions at "above 110 cpm" was higher in the student-involved group (P = .021), whereas the proportion at "90-110 cpm" was lower in the student-involved group (P = .015). The ratio of hands-off time to total manual compression time was significantly lower in the student-involved group than in the non-student-involved group (P = .04). In contrast, the student-involved group delivered a higher ventilation rate compared with the non-student-involved group (P = .02). The observed time delay to first compression and first ventilation were very similar between the groups. There were no significant differences between the groups in either return of spontaneous circulation or time from survival to discharge.

Conclusion: Student-involved resuscitation teams were able to perform good CPR, with higher compression rates and fewer interruptions. However, the supervision from medical staff is still needed to ensure appropriate chest compression and ventilation rate in student-involved actual CPR in the emergency department.