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New Tools for Achieving High Quality CPR | HealthStream

April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021

Balancing the education and certification requirements for CPR against the need for education that is compliant, includes the latest science, and is streamlined and efficient can be a challenge for healthcare educators. The American Red Cross’s new curriculum may help educators meet this challenge.

What is New?

In 2015 the American Heart Association (AHA) issued major new guidelines for CPR and CPR training that was aimed at increasing survival rates for sudden cardiac events and changed how providers are trained, specifically the frequency of that training. In 2015, new evidence that showed relatively rapid deterioration of the skills associated with CPR (within 6-12 months) caused the AHA to issue recommendations for more frequent, continuous training.

In 2019 additional guidance was given by the AHA. The 2019 updates addressed training recommendations aimed at including the best equipment for training. The new recommendation is for training equipment that provides student feedback that is:

  • Provided in real-time
  • Audible, voice-directed
  • Specific to the student and training exercise

The AHAs research showed that the feedback provided by training devices with these features helps students better understand what is meant by high-quality CPR.

What Is High-Quality CPR?

High-quality CPR includes the following components.

  • Chest compression fraction (CCF) ˃80%
  • Compression rate of 100-120 compressions per minute
  • Compression depth of 2 inches in adults and a minimum of one-third of the anterior-posterior chest dimension in infants and children
  • No excessive ventilation
  • Minimizing interruptions to CCF
  • Full chest recoil – no residual leaning

How Do Organizations Prepare Staff to Deliver High-Quality CPR?

Healthcare and emergency medical services providers need to be ready to provide high-quality CPR, so what can healthcare organizations do to help them remain in a state of readiness? The American Red Cross has developed a Resuscitation Education Suite that can help organizations satisfy CPR certification and licensing requirements. The program provides:

  • An online, adaptive learning component that allows the student to customize and possibly shorten their path to certification.
  • Videos and simulations featuring real physicians and nurses in hospital settings demonstrating the kinds of critical thinking and decision-making important to successful outcomes.
  • Content that can accessed from any device at any time allowing flexibility for busy providers.

In addition, these materials are now ADA-compliant.

The suite also provides increased training efficiency with its “Review and Challenge” option which allows students three training options. Students can:

  • Take the full course
  • Use the Review Option which allows providers who are renewing their certification to do a brief skills review before testing on those skills and proceeding to the in-person skills assessment
  • Lastly, for experienced providers, the Challenge Option allows an expedited path to certification by giving the student the option to proceed directly to testing. However, if the student does not pass the test, they must then take the full course.

In addition, the suite helps focus learners on real-life situations, critical decision-making and team work to help further integrate this education into the real life practice of CPR.

While guidance on what constitutes high-quality CPR may be regularly updated, there are practical and efficient options to help healthcare organizations to stay abreast of updated guidance and support staff with training that is efficient and current.

Deliver Resuscitation Quality and Compliance within Budget

When lives are at stake, can everyone on your staff respond quickly and competently to a resuscitation event? Many healthcare leaders are concerned that despite rising costs of training, resuscitation rates have not improved in the last decade.

The American Red Cross Resuscitation Suite ™ for BLS, ALS and PALS empowers healthcare organizations to be in control of a customizable adaptive program, saving the organization money while participating in the next wave of resuscitation advancement.