Data from: Comparison of a newly established emotional stimulus approach to a classical assessment-driven approach in BLS Training - a randomized controlled trial

Objective: The study objective was to implement two strategies (short emotional stimulus vs. announced practical assessment) in the teaching of resuscitation skills in order to evaluate whether one led to superior outcomes. Setting: This study is an educational intervention provided in one German academic university hospital. Participants: First year Medical students (n=271) during the first 3 weeks of their studies. Interventions: Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups following a sequence of random numbers: the emotional stimulus group (EG) and the assessment group (AG). In the EG, the intervention included watching an emotionally stimulating video prior to the BLS-course. In the AG, a practical assessment of the BLS algorithm was announced and tested within a 2min simulated cardiac arrest scenario. After the baseline testing, a standardized BLS-course was provided. Evaluation points were defined one week and six months after. Primary outcome measures: Compression depth (CD) and compression rate (CR) were recorded as the primary endpoints for BLS quality. Results: Within the study 137 participants were allocated to the EG and 134 to the AG. 104 participants from EG and 120 were analysed 1 week after the intervention where they reached comparable chest-compressions performance without significant differences (CR p=0.49; CD p=0.28). The chest-compression performance improved significantly for EG (p<0.01) and the AG (p<0.01) while adhering to the current Resuscitation guidelines criteria for CD and CR. Conclusions: There was no statistical difference between both groups’ practical chest-compression-performance. Nevertheless, the two-minute video sequence used in the EG with its low production effort and costs, compared with the expensive assessment approach, provides broad opportunities for applicability in BLS-training. Trial registration: The trial was registered and approved by the local ethics committee EK 249/12