Teaching advanced life support to predoctoral dental students

The purpose of this project was to determine if senior dental students were capable of meeting the rigid didactic and clinical performance requirements of the American Heart Association's course in advanced life support. The course includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, endotracheal intubation, intravenous cannulation, interpretation of certain electro-cardiographic dysrhythmias, synchronized cardioversion, defibrillation and the use of intravenous vasopressors, cardiotonics, and antiarhythmics. Of 30 students who were randomly selected from over 120 applicants for this senior elective course, 27 met the minimum proficiency requirement of 85 percent on a standardized written examination, and no one scored less than 78 percent. Of the students who were offered clinical testing stations, 19 out of 20 met the clinicae support can be considered a feasible addition to other instruction in emergency care in the undergraduate dental curriculum.