title: Nurses are more efficient than doctors in teaching basic life support and automated external defibrillator in nurses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cardiac arrest (CA) is a leading cause of death worldwide. The European Resuscitation Council (ERC) has developed basic life support/automated external defibrillation (BLS/AED) courses for uniform training in out-of-hospital CA.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present study compares the resuscitation skills of two groups of nursing staff, one taught by newly trained ERC nurse-instructors and the other by newly trained doctor-instructors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighteen doctors and 18 nurses were asked to teach a total of 108 nurses in a (BLS/AED) course. One month after its completion, all 108 nurses were asked to be re-evaluated, with the use of the objective structured clinical examination.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  No statistical significant difference between the two groups was noted in the written test, in contrast with data collected from the practice skills check-list. Nurses in group A could easily identify the patient in cardiac arrest but had difficulties concerning chest compressions and handling the AED. Nurses in group B were more focused during the performances, used AED more accurately and continued cardiopulmonary resuscitation with no delays. Nurses prove to be more efficient in training nurses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Surgery and Surgical Research "N.S. Christeas", University of Athens, Medical School, 15B Agiou Thoma Street, 11527 Athens, Greece. theodorosxanthos@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Theodoros
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xanthos
authors.forename: Konstantinos A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Ekmektzoglou
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bassiakou
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Koudouna
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barouxis
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stroumpoulis
authors.forename: Theano
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Demestiha
authors.forename: Katerina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Marathias
authors.forename: Nicoletta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Iacovidou
authors.forename: Lila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Papadimitriou
mesh_terms: D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000193:education; D004554:Electric Countershock; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000379:methods*; D009726:Nurses; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education*; D010820:Physicians; D012151:Resuscitation / Q000193:education*; D013663:Teaching