• Suthirat Ratanarojanakul and Watsachon Pangkanon.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Nopparatrajathanee Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand.
• J Emerg Med. 2022 Aug 1; 63 (2): 309316309-316.

BackgroundCardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performed by lay rescuers can increase a person's chance of survival. The COVID-19 pandemic enforced prevention policies that encouraged social distancing, which disrupted conventional modes of health care education. Tele-education may benefit CPR training during the pandemic.ObjectiveOur aim was to compare CPR knowledge and skills using tele-education vs. conventional classroom teaching methods.MethodsA noninferiority trial was conducted as a Basic Life Support workshop. Participants were randomly assigned to a tele-education or conventional group. Primary outcomes assessed were CPR knowledge and skills and secondary outcomes assessed were individual skills, ventilation, and chest compression characteristics.ResultsPretraining knowledge scores (mean ± standard deviation [SD] 3.50 ± 2.18 vs. 4.35 ± 1.70; p = 0.151) and post-training knowledge scores (7.91 ± 2.14 vs. 8.52 ± 0.90; p = 0.502) of the tele-education and conventional groups, respectively, had no statistically significant difference. Both groups' training resulted in a significant and comparable gain in knowledge scores (p < 0.001). The tele-education and conventional groups skill scores (mean ± SD 78.30 ± 6.77 vs. 79.65 ± 9.93; p = 0.579) had no statistical difference. Skillset scores did not differ statistically except for the compression rate and ventilation ratio; the conventional group performed better (p = 0.042 vs. p = 0.017). The tele-education and conventional groups' number of participants passed the skill test (95.5% and 91.3%, respectively; p = 1.000).ConclusionsTele-education offers a pragmatic and reasonably effective alternative to conventional CPR training during the COVID-19 pandemic.Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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