Six Essential Elements of a Successful Resuscitation Program for the Care Continuum

April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021

Resuscitation success is a goal that organizations across the healthcare continuum must work harder to achieve. Using hospitals’ experience as a template is going to help them get there sooner.

In an interview that was the basis for the HealthStream article, Improving Resuscitation throughout the Care Continuum: Lessons and Suggestions about CPR Training, Resuscitation Expert Donna Haynes made the case for efforts across the healthcare continuum to improve resuscitation readiness and competency. This blog post is the third in a series excerpting the article.

Care Continuum Resuscitation – The Mandatory Features

As leaders across the care continuum plan to provide higher quality CPR training, what should they do to lay the foundation for success? Haynes shared these must-haves for moving toward a more rigorous resuscitation-training program.

  • Support from Leadership: Chief nursing officers, directors of nursing, directors of education, and staff alike are aware of the increasing acuity levels of patients across the continuum of care. While it is certainly true that a patient who codes outside the hospital will be transferred to an acute-care facility, these leaders and their staff also know that what happens in the first few minutes of that Code really matter. Providing high-quality CPR is a differentiator and no less important outside the hospital.
  • Effective Communication: Building skills will also build staff confidence, and so will communication. “Working as a team to clearly communicate what is happening during the code and communicating all that is known of the patient’s history are key elements of a successful code, regardless of the setting,” said Haynes.
  • Resource Replacement: Haynes stresses the importance of keeping the manikins and any other equipment in good working order to provide the optimal student experience and the highest quality training. Manikins need to be maintained and replaced periodically.
  • Change Management Strategy: Haynes affirms that building support for any change to a higher quality resuscitation training program is imperative. She encourages leaders to manage this change as they would any other change that would affect employees. Nurse educators are often in a position to be able to recruit super-users who can serve as both advocates for the new training modality and as subject matter experts.
  • Greater Training Flexibility: The world of CPR training has been standardized for a long time—the idea of taking what many see as a well-designed formula and tinkering with it will likely raise some eyebrows. However, “flexibility is critical,” says Jonathan Epstein, Senior Director of Science, Industry, and Government Relationships for the Training Services division of the American Red Cross. Instead of a one-size-fits-all program for every employee, resuscitation curriculum and training programs should be “built around adaptive learning, with pre-assessments that allow individualized learning plans. This approach to learning is more personalized and focused. It can reduce course times for those who demonstrate sufficient competency. It also saves the organization money and increases staff availability for delivering care.” Epstein adds that the Joint Commission rules support CPR training and certification from any organization’s programs that “are using ILCOR science and following the ILCOR pathway. In fact, most regulations include language about programs meeting a ‘standard of or equivalency’ because it would legally be a restriction of trade to have a regulation that bars any other organization.”
  • Training adaptability: Depending on the care environment and the likelihood of Code occurrences, it may be helpful to incorporate interval training for resuscitation. Rather than taking a class once, getting certified, and then repeating the procedure when it’s time for certificate renewal, CPR training can be an ongoing engagement through short interactions on a regular basis. The result? Better skills retention, more confidence, and more accurate and timely intervention during an event.

The article also includes:

  • Strengthening CPR Training
  • Where Do CPR Guidelines Come From? ILCOR
  • Challenges for Resuscitation Success across the Care Continuum
  • Results of a Successful Resuscitation Training Program
  • Importance of High Quality Resuscitation in Hospice Environment
  • Learning from Successful Resuscitation Programs
  • Future Predictions for CPR

Download the full article here.