Medical Behavior in Cardiorespiratory Arrest before and After Simulation Based on Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Course

Abstract Background: The Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) course is designed to teach cardiovascular emergency, aiming to promote a harmonious and synchronized work of the entire hospital team, making the multidisciplinary job more effective in the execution of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Objective: To compare the effectiveness of CPR performed between physicians trained on ACLS and non-trained physicians. Methods: A questionnaire was applied to physicians working at the emergency room of hospitals in Curitiba, state of Paraná, whose resolution required theoretical and practical knowledge about CPR. For analysis, descriptive statistics and Fisher's association analysis were used, and the medians of the groups were evaluated by Mann-Whitney/Kruskal-Wallis with significance of 5%. Results: Thirty-four physicians were volunteers, of whom 20 had taken the ACLS course (Group A) and 14 had not (Group B). The trained physicians obtained the highest median (4.00 vs. 3.00, p = 0.06) of correct answers. Group A scored at least 3 of the 5 questions in the questionnaire, showing better performance than Group B (OR = 6.75, 95% CI, 1.1