Pre-training evaluation and feedback improve medical students' skills in basic life support

Evaluation and feedback are two factors that could influence simulation-based medical education and the time when they were delivered contributes their different effects.

To investigate the impact of pre-training evaluation and feedback on medical students' performance in basic life support (BLS).

Forty 3rd-year undergraduate medical students were randomly divided into two groups, C group (the control) and pre-training evaluation and feedback group (E&F group), each of 20. After BLS theoretical lecture, the C group received 45 min BLS training and the E&F group was individually evaluated (video-taped) in a mock cardiac arrest (pre-training evaluation). Fifteen minutes of group feedback related with the students' BLS performance in pre-training evaluation was given in the E&F group, followed by a 30-min BLS training. After BLS training, both groups were evaluated with one-rescuer BLS skills in a 3-min mock cardiac arrest scenario (post-training evaluation). The score from the post-training evaluation was converted to a percentage and was compared between the two groups.

The score from the post-training evaluation was higher in the E&F group (82.9 ± 3.2% vs. 63.9 ± 13.4% in C group).

In undergraduate medical students without previous BLS training, pre-training evaluation and feedback improve their performance in followed BLS training.