• Yonathan Freund, François-Xavier Duchateau, Elinor C Baker, Hélène Goulet, Serge Carreira, Matthieu Schmidt, Bruno Riou, Jean-Jacques Rouby, and Alexandre Duguet.
• Emergency Department, Pitié - Salpêtrière Hospital. yonatman@gmail.com
• Eur J Emerg Med. 2013 Jun 1;20(3):193-6.

AimBefore implementing new workshops and teaching in our faculty for performing basic life support (BLS), we aimed to determine the level of self-confidence of medical students with regard to the management of cardiac arrest (CA).MethodsWe conducted a preinterventional study. A questionnaire was sent to third-year to sixth-year medical students. We recorded sex, year of training, and personal witnessing of CA. We asked them about their theoretical knowledge on 10 main items of BLS and their self-perception of qualification to conduct a CA situation. We tested the respective influence of sex, year of training, and personal witnessing of CA.ResultsIn total, 592 (37%) students completed the questionnaire, 42% of them were men. Less than a third of the students (30%) thought of themselves as being sufficiently qualified to conduct BLS. After the third year, the level of study did not influence their theoretical knowledge or their self-perception of qualification. Male sex and the number of CAs witnessed were the only factors positively associated with better self-confidence regarding qualification.ConclusionSelf-perception of qualification in BLS is poor in our faculty. In our study, personal witnessing of CA greatly influenced confidence, whereas level of study did not.

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