title: [Basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation: knowledge, practical skills and effectiveness of maneuvers of general physicians].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  General physicians should be adequately trained to deliver effective resuscitation during ventricular fibrillation (VF).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the degree of knowledge, skills and practical effectiveness in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) of Chilean general physicians.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty eight general physicians starting Anesthesiology or Internal Medicine residency programs were evaluated. They answered a modified American Heart Association Basic Life Support Course written test and individually participated in a witnessed VF cardiac arrest simulated scenario. Execution of resuscitation tasks in the correct order, the quality of the maneuvers and the use of defibrillator were registered.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All participants acknowledged the importance of uninterrupted CPR and early defibrillation. Seventy five percent knew the correct frequency of chest compressions, but only 6.25% knew all the effective chest compression characteristics. Ninety eight percent knew the recommended number of breaths per cycle. In practice, 58% performed effective ventilations, 33% performed uninterrupted compressions, 14% did them with adequate frequency and only 8% performed chest compressions adequately. Forty four percent requested a defibrillator within 30 seconds and 31% delivered the first defibrillation within 30 seconds of defibrillator arrival. Airway, breathing, circulation and defibrillation sequence was correctly performed by 12% of participants and 80% acknowledged that their medical training was inadequate or insufficient for managing a cardiac arrest.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite an elevated degree of knowledge about key aspects of CPR, this group of Chilean physicians displayed suboptimal practical skills while performing CPR in a simulated scenario, specially delivering effective chest compressions and promptly asking for and using the defibrillator.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Pediatría y Cirugía Infantil, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile. lrojas@med.puc.cl
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rojas
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aizman
authors.forename: Juan Pablo
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Arab
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Utili
authors.forename: MsC Max
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Andresen
mesh_terms: D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000592:standards*; D002677:Chile; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D058006:General Practice; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency