Chest compression quality and retention of skills in basic life support training given to medical school year 5 students.

Objectives: Sudden cardiac arrest is a significant cause of cardiovascular death. Basic life support (BLS) practitioners need training to provide effective, quality interventions. This study investigates the effectiveness of curriculum-based BLS training and measures the students' performance levels before and after training and their skill retention over time.

Methods: A total of 70 students were selected as the study population. Before their emergency medicine (EM) clerkship, participants performed BLS with 30 compressions and two rescue breaths on a simulation manikin (Measurement 1). Early posttraining skills were reassessed within the 1^st week after clerkship (Measurement 2), and skill retention was evaluated after 9 months (Measurement 3). All measurements were done by a single observer using the same manikin.

Results: Of the 70 enrolled students, 64 completed the study. Significant improvements were observed in overall cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), compression, and ventilation scores posttraining and at 9 months (P < 0.05). Among 34 participants who performed ≥3 CPRs, posttraining and 9-month scores remained stable (P = 0.238). No significant change was found in compression scores among nonperformers (P = 0.982), and intergroup comparisons showed no statistical difference (P = 0.977; P = 0.900).

Conclusion: BLS training provided to medical faculty 5^th-year students in the EM clerkship program increased the effectiveness of chest compression, and this skill did not regress within 9 months.