Effectiveness of a One-minute Self-retraining for Chest Compression-only Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: Randomized...

Although cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills decay after training, little is known about appropriate retraining methods. Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 1-minute self-retraining (with automated assessment and feedback) at 3 months after the initial 45-minute chest compression-only CPR training in a simulated randomized controlled trial.

After the initial 45-minute chest compression-only CPR training, participants were randomly assigned to either a 1-minute self-retraining group or a control group. Three months after the initial training, the self-retraining group individually attended the 1-minute self-retraining with a self-training device. The participants' resuscitation skills were evaluated by a 2-minute case-based scenario test 6 months after the initial training. The primary outcome was the number of correct chest compressions with appropriate depth.

A total of 109 subjects participated in this study. With regard to the primary outcome, the number of chest compressions performed at the appropriate depth, there was not a statistically significant difference between groups (136.5 [39.8-204.5] in the self-retraining group versus 88.0 [8.5-162.0] in the control group, p = 0.66). The number of total chest compressions in the self-retraining group was 214.0 (186.5-236.0), which was significantly greater (p = 0.01) than that of the control group (177.0 [117.5-215.0]). The time without chest compressions was significantly shorter in the self-retraining group (0 [0-5.3] seconds vs. 23.0 [0.5-47.0] seconds, p = 0.01).

The 1-minute self-retraining program with hands-on practice appears to help preserve certain chest compression skills. Further efforts to provide methods to maintain CPR skills should be considered.