[Educational packages: adult education about basic and advanced methods of life support measures. Analysis of some...

Educational courses are increasingly being offered in Italy to health care workers who want to acquire or improve their basic (BLS) or advanced (ACLS) resuscitation skills. Since 1994 the Italian Resuscitation Council planned and implemented educational BLS and ACLS packages. Their content, methodology and implementation strategies was analysed on the basis of the educational and informational materials offered to the learners and instructors. The duration of the courses varies (never exceeding the three days): the performance of the participants is evaluated and certified. The courses are open to critical care doctors, nurses, technicians and in some cases to the lay people. They are based on the adult learning principles and the learning strategies are both formal and interactive. The course instructors are doctors and nurses specifically trained after a successful result (with optimal performance) of a BLS and ACLS course. At least 50,000 people attended to a BLS course and a lower number (1270) to an ACLS course. To date, the number of recognised BLS instructors is 229 and 79 for the ACLS courses. The recommended costs are around 120 US $ for a BLS course and 400 US $ for an ACLS course. Although the debate on the effectiveness of such a training on the survival of people treated for a cardiac arrest is still ongoing, the learning packages show the feasibility of a multi-professional approach to a systematic training in a critical health area.