Evaluation of retention of safety and survival training content versus industry standard for training

The accepted standard in the industry for survival and safety training is annual recurrent educational programs. The industry has never looked at nor tested content comprehension or retention on this subject. We decided to conduct a sample testing of crews' ability to understand and retain survival training material.

This study solicited the participation of four program crews that had received previous training in safety and survival. A test on safety and survival training content was administrated to nurses and paramedics before a refresher course (test 1), then immediately after the course (test 2), and again 6 months later (test 3). Ninety-six crew members took tests 1 and 2, and 79 (82%) took test 3.

The average time since any crew member participating in this study had attended a survival course was 1 to 1.5 years. The pretraining test mean score was 60 (60%); the posttraining average score was 92 (92%); and the 6-month mean score was 65 (65%).

Flight crews do not retain a safe level of survival skill knowledge with annual recurrent training. Therefore the industry needs to reevaluate its position on this standard of annual recurrent training. Survival training is too important for flight crews to undertake only once per year. Rescuer care is as important as patient care.