WILL YOU REMEMBER WHAT TO DO WHEN IT REALLY MATTERS? A STUDY EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF SENSOR-BASED CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION TECHNIQUE ON THE ABILITY TO MAINTAIN CPR SKILLS
L. Gedal, H. Hansson
Sudden cardiac arrest is a serious medical condition that requires immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Research has shown that CPR performance is generally lacking, but technical aids such as CPR-guide can improve CPR performance for both laypeople and healthcare professionals. However, further research also shows that CPR skills deteriorate quickly.
Research Question:
How does training with sensor-based CPR technology affect the ability to maintain skills in the correct performance of CPR?
Method:
To answer this question, an experimental study with a quantitative method was conducted. Twenty laypeople participated in the study. The participants performed CPR without aid, with a CPR-guide (a sensor-based technology aid for CPR that uses visual graphic feedback, VGF), and then without aid again. Data was collected through technical equipment and was later analyzed using descriptive statistics and a One-way Repeated Measures ANOVA.
Results: The study's results showed that at the first training session, without using the technical aid, the average proportion of correctly performed compressions was only 10.9%. This figure rose to 56.4% with the use of the CPR-guide. At the final training session without the technical aid, an average of 17.5% of the compressions were performed correctly. The results indicated that just one training session with the CPR-guide resulted in an average improvement of 60.5% in the number of successful compressions performed by the test subjects when performing CPR without aid.
Conclusion:
The study contributes to a better understanding of the role of technology in CPR training. Consistent with previous research, the results show that technical aids such as CPR-guide improve CPR performance. The study establishes that training with technical aids using VGF is an effective way to train laypeople in CPR and that the skills are retained. The study's results and limitations also emphasize the need for repeated studies with a control group. This is necessary to investigate how training with technical aids that use VGF affects the retention of CPR skills compared to training without such aids.
Keywords: CPR Guide, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Cardiac Arrest, Compressions, Technical Aid, Learning, Sensors, Memory.