The immediate life support (ILS) course--the Italian experience.
OBJECTIVE
The 1-day immediate life support course (ILS) was started in the United Kingdom and adopted by the ERC to train healthcare professionals who attend cardiac arrests only occasionally. Currently, there are no reports about the ILS course from outside the UK. In this paper we describe our initial Italian experience of teaching ILS to nurses. We have also measured the impact that ILS has on the resuscitation knowledge of nurses.


METHODS
The ILS course materials were translated by Italian ALS instructors who had observed the ILS course previously in the UK. From March to November 2005 nurses from a single hospital department attended the Italian ILS course. Candidate feedback was collected using an evaluation form. The change in knowledge of candidates was measured using a pre- and post-course test. Variables associated with candidate performance on course papers were investigated using multivariate linear regression analysis.


RESULTS
A total of 119 nurses attended nine ILS courses. All candidates completed the course successfully and gave high evaluation scores. ILS produced a significant increase from pre- to post-course score (10.15+/-2.75 to 13.19+/-2.53, p<0.001). The pre-course score was higher for nurses working in ICU compared with those coming from non-intensive wards, but this difference disappeared in the post-course evaluation (13.89+/-2.18 versus 12.79+/-2.65, p=ns).


CONCLUSIONS
We have reproduced the ILS course in Italy successfully. ILS teaching resulted in an improvement in resuscitation knowledge of the first group of nurses trained.
Scapigliati
Andrea
A
Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Largo A. Gemelli 8, 00168 Rome, Italy. a.scapigliati@rm.unicatt.it
Sanna
Tommaso
T
Zamparelli
Roberto
R
Sandroni
Claudio
C
Colizzi
Christian
C
Fenici
Peter
P
Arlotta
Gabriella
G
Nuzzo
Carmen
C
Bonarrigo
Carmela
C
Bellocci
Fulvio
F
Schiavello
Rocco
R
Possati
Gianfederico
G
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000451:nursing*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D011361:Professional Competence; D012151:Resuscitation / Q000193:education / Q000451:nursing*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome