High-Impact Medical Education in Basic Life Support: A Comparative Study of Doctors and Medical Students in a...

Although very crucial in medicine, mastery of cardiopulmonary resuscitation remains poor in many low and-medium income countries (LMICs) due mainly to the lack of readily accessible training facilities and expertise.

The current study was aimed at evaluating the knowledge of Basic Life Support (BLS) among senior-level medical students and doctors in Nigeria, as well as to evaluate the value of a video teaching method in improving the knowledge base of BLS. It was a two-cohort prospective study carried out over a duration of one month. Each group of participants had an initial assessment of their knowledge of Basic Life Support using a questionnaire. Thereafter, the 45-minute CHEMPIONS-BLS video was projected. On completion of the video session, the same questionnaire was again administered to each group of participants. This was followed by a practical, hands-on workshop at the skills laboratory. Data was collected using the questionnaires and comparisons were made between the pre and post-test responses.

Seventy-five medical students and 41 doctors were enrolled into this study. Overall, their knowledge of BLS and their exposure to previous BLS training were poor, but there was a significant improvement in the mean scores, and the overall performance after viewing the video just one time; t = 27.30, p = .000 and χ² = 116.01; p = .000 respectively.

This study reveals poor knowledge and exposure to basic life support training among both medical students and practicing doctors. It further reveals the value of a novel training method in improving BLS knowledge.