Defibrillation safety: an examination of paramedic perceptions using eye-tracking technology

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Emergency Medicine
• Human Factors Engineering

Background:

• Early defibrillation is crucial for cardiac arrest survival, forming a key part of the chain of survival.
• Defibrillation is a standard procedure for out-of-hospital emergency care providers.
• Limited research exists on student safety protocols during defibrillation procedures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate visual and verbal safety checks performed by students before defibrillation.
• To utilize eye-tracking technology to analyze student safety behaviors during simulated cardiac arrest scenarios.

Main Methods:

• An observational study involving student participants using a medium-fidelity mannequin for resuscitation simulations.
• Participants completed two 10-minute simulations, each requiring three defibrillation attempts.
• The Kappa statistic was employed to assess agreement between students' perceived safety performance and observed actions via video.

Main Results:

• Student agreement on perceived safety performance versus observed actions decreased from the first to the third defibrillation attempt in both scenarios.
• Despite a decline in perceived accuracy over repeated attempts, overall defibrillation safety performance showed agreement across scenarios.
• Eye-tracking data revealed discrepancies in students' self-assessment of safety checks.

Conclusions:

• Student perceptions of their safety actions during defibrillation simulations do not consistently align with their actual performance.
• The study highlights potential areas for improvement in training and feedback mechanisms for emergency care students.
• Further research is needed to enhance the accuracy of self-reported safety behaviors in high-stress medical procedures.