title: Medical students teaching basic life support to school children as a required element of medical education: a randomised controlled study comparing three different approaches to fifth year medical training in emergency medicine.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Basic life support (BLS) by doctors has been shown to be of poor quality. To improve medical education training should be simplified, and simultaneously the learner should be involved more actively. To combine both ideas we trained medical students to give BLS courses and sent them to teach school children. This was a requirement for their emergency medicine course. Our model was compared to conventional teaching.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medical students were assigned at random to one of three groups. Group 1 ("university") attended a conventional university BLS/ALS course. Group 2 ("EMS") accompanied a BLS vehicle of the emergency medical service (EMS) after suitable preparation. Group 3 ("school") was instructed to teach BLS and then sent to teach at schools.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinically significant BLS skills, and overall BLS skills, each assessed by structured clinical examination (SCE). Theoretical knowledge assessed by written (open question) test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinically relevant mistakes were seen in 37.5% in group 1 ("university"), compared to 28.8% in group 2 ("EMS"), and 11.3% in group 3 ("school"). Highly significant differences were shown between "school" and "EMS" (p=0.011), and between "school" and "university" (p<0.001). In practical testing for overall performance the "university" group reached a median of 78.8% (25th-75th percentile 69.2-84.6%), group "EMS" reached 76.9% (69.2-88.5%), and group "school" 84.6% (76.9-90.0). Group "school" showed significant advantages over "university" (p=0.015) and "EMS" (p=0.010). Written test results did not differ statistically.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medical students teaching BLS to school children as a compulsory element of their own medical training showed superior practical skills as compared to conventional teaching. Theoretical knowledge was equivalent to the control groups, although their course contained less theoretical information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Intensive Care Medicine, Berlin, Germany. jan.breckwoldt@charite.de
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Breckwoldt
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beetz
authors.forename: Luise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schnitzer
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Waskow
authors.forename: Hans-Richard
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Arntz
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weimann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D003479:Curriculum; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D017145:Models, Educational; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*