Impact of a Quality Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Coach on Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Resuscitation Teams.

Background: The quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) coach role was developed for hospital-based resuscitation teams. This supplementary team member (CPR coach) provides real-time, verbal feedback on chest compression quality to compressors during a cardiac arrest.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of a quality CPR coach training intervention on resuscitation teams, including presence of coaches on teams and physiologic metrics of quality CPR delivery in real compression events.

Methods: The quality CPR coach curriculum and role implementation were designed and evaluated using a logic model framework. Medical records of patients who had in-unit cardiopulmonary arrests were reviewed retrospectively. Data included physiologic metrics of quality CPR delivery. Analysis included descriptive statistics and comparison of arrest data before and after the intervention.

Results: A total of 79 cardiopulmonary arrests were analyzed: 40 before and 39 after the intervention. Presence of a quality CPR coach on resuscitation teams was more frequent after training, increasing from 35% before the intervention to 72% after (P = .002). No significant difference was found in the frequency of application of Zoll defibrillator pads. Metrics of quality CPR delivery and adherence with American Heart Association recommendations were either unchanged or improved after the intervention.

Conclusions: The quality CPR coach training intervention significantly increased coach presence on code teams, which was associated with clinically significant improvements in some metrics of quality CPR delivery in real cardiopulmonary arrests.