Analysis of a sustained educational intervention to teach cardiopulmonary resuscitation to schoolchildren

Villanueva Ordóñez MJ, Rey Galán C, Crespo Ruiz F, Díaz González L, Martínez Bastida G

This project analyzed the feasibility, effectiveness, and sustainability of an educational project to teach cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). This project has been carried out in a publicly subsidized school in a town in Asturias, Spain (population, over 80 000 inhabitants). The enrollment included students in preschool and both primary and secondary education classes. The project had 3 phases: 1) health care experts trained the teachers in CPR and they designed the educational project together; 2) health care experts taught CPR to schoolchildren, and 3) teachers taught CPR to the children. All the children enrolled in preschool and primary school (aged 3 to 12 years) initially participated in the study. Training followed the 2005 guidelines of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) in effect at the time of the study. In the first phase (2006), 19 teachers (79.2% of the faculty) were trained in basic CPR and collaborated with the health care

professionals in designing the course, including setting its objectives and developing materials. In the second phase (2006–2011), the health care professionals trained 646 preschool and primary school children and accredited 13 teachers (54.2% of the faculty) in the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) and to serve as CPR instructional monitors. In the third phase (2012–2014), 7 teachers trained 703 preschool and primary and secondary school students, and 17 teachers (70.8% of the faculty) received training to become CPR monitors and/or to update their knowledge of AED use. A total of 1349 students between the ages of 3 and 15 years received instruction in CPR. The school has had an AED on its premises since 2011. The teachers have made further improvements in the courses, incorporating new teaching materials, updating the objectives, and extending instruction to secondary school students. The implementation of an educational program to

teach CPR in a school that enrolls preschool through secondary school students was feasible and sustainable. Teachers have improved the program, extended it to secondary school students, and made the project known in the local media and on the school’s web site, thus contributing to the creation of a CPR culture that reached out to the community.

Crespo Ruiz F, Díaz González L, Martínez Bastida G, Rey Galán C, Villanueva Ordóñez MJ