The psychological consequences of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for family members of patients at risk for sudden death.

Background: Resuscitation from cardiac arrest often depends on prompt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from the lay public, yet bystander CPR rates in the US are low. One barrier to bystander CPR delivery is that most arrests occur in the home, where only family members may be available to provide care. Little data exist regarding the ability to target and train family members of “at-risk” patients in CPR. Objective: We sought to implement a CPR video self-instruction (VSI) program for family members of in-hospital patients at risk for cardiac arrest. After training in situ before hospital discharge, we tested the hypothesis that at-risk patient family members would be motivated to secondarily train others in the home after leaving the hospital setting. Methods: Family members of patients hospitalized for cardiac conditions at one tertiary-care hospital between 12/07 and 6/08 who met pre-defined inclusion criteria were offered CPR VSI training requiring 25–30 min. All trainees were assessed for skill competence and video recorded for analysis. Trainees were encouraged to take the VSI kit home, and follow-up surveys were conducted to gauge secondary training of other family members. Results: Among 36 enrollees, mean age (SD) was 50 (13) and 78% of trainees were female; only 17% had been CPR trained within the past 10 years, and 44% had never been trained. Most (67%) of the trainees were either children or spouses of the at-risk hospitalized patients. Most (78%) trainees rated their experience with learning CPR via VSI as “comfortable” or “very comfortable”. During 2 min of CPR skills assessment, mean (SD) chest compression rate was 100 (19), mean percentage (SD) adequate depth was 89% (15%), and mean (SD) time for two breaths was 10.8 (4.6) sec. Follow-up surveys revealed that 33% of recipients performed secondary training at home, with a mean (SD) of 1.8 (1.3) secondary trainees. Conclusions: CPR VSI training for family members of hospitalized cardiac patients may serve as a cost-effective model to disseminate resuscitation skills and allows for secondary training in the home of patients at risk for sudden cardiac arrest.

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Incorporating cardiopulmonary resuscitation training into a cardiac rehabilitation programme: A feasibility study

European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing ◽

10.1177/1474515117721010 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 148-158 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Susie Cartledge ◽

Judith Finn ◽

Janet E Bray ◽

Rosalind Case ◽

Lauren Barker ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ◽

Cardiac Rehabilitation ◽

Family Members ◽

Target Population ◽

Rehabilitation Programme ◽

Cardiac Events ◽

Cardiac Rehabilitation Programme ◽

Resuscitation Training ◽

Self Instruction ◽

Cpr Training

Background: Patients with a cardiac history are at future risk of cardiac events, including out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Targeting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training to family members of cardiac patients has long been advocated, but is an area in need of contemporary research evidence. An environment yet to be investigated for targeted training is cardiac rehabilitation. Aim: To evaluate the feasibility of providing CPR training in a cardiac rehabilitation programme among patients, their family members and staff. Methods: A prospective before and after study design was used. CPR training was delivered using video self-instruction CPR training kits, facilitated by a cardiac nurse. Data was collected pre-training, post-training and at one month. Results: Cardiac patient participation rates in CPR classes were high ( n = 56, 72.7% of eligible patients) with a further 27 family members attending training. Patients were predominantly male (60.2%), family members were predominantly female (81.5%), both with a mean age of 65 years. Confidence to perform CPR and willingness to use skills significantly increased post-training (both p<0.001). Post training participants demonstrated a mean compression rate of 112 beats/min and a mean depth of 48 mm. Training reach was doubled as participants shared the video self-instruction kit with a further 87 people. Patients, family members and cardiac rehabilitation staff had positive feedback about the training. Conclusions: We demonstrated that cardiac rehabilitation is an effective and feasible environment to provide CPR training. Using video self-instruction CPR training kits enabled further training reach to the target population.

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