• Catherine Patocka, Adam Cheng, Matthew Sibbald, Jonathan P Duff, Anita Lai, Patricia Lee-Nobbee, Helen Levin, Terry Varshney, Bryan Weber, and Farhan Bhanji.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Foothills Medical Centre, C-231 1403-29 St NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 2T9, Canada. Electronic address: Catherine.patocka@ucalgary.ca.
• Resuscitation. 2019 Aug 1; 141: 73-80.

AimResuscitation courses are typically taught in a massed format despite existing evidence suggesting skill decay as soon as 3 months after training. Our study explored the impact of spaced versus massed instruction on acquisition and long-term retention of provider paediatric resuscitation skills.MethodsProviders were randomized to receive a paediatric resuscitation course in either a spaced (four weekly sessions) or massed format (two sequential days). Infant and adult chest compressions [CC], bag mask ventilation [BMV], and intraosseous insertion [IO] performance was measured using global rating scales.ResultsForty-eight participants completed the study protocol. Skill performance improved from baseline in both groups immediately following training. 3-months post-training the infant and adult CC scores remained significantly improved from baseline testing in both the massed and spaced groups; however, the infant BMV and IO scores remained significantly improved from baseline testing in the spaced: BMV (pre, 1.8 ± 0.7 vs post-3-months, 2.2 ± 7; P = 0.005) IO (pre, 2.5 ± 1 vs post-3-months, 3.1 ± 0.5; P = 0.04) but not in the massed groups: BMV (pre, 1.6 ± 0.5 vs post-3-months, 1.8 ± 0.5; P = 0.98) IO (pre, 2.6 ± 1.1 vs post-3-months, 2.7 ± 0.2; P = 0.98).Conclusion3-month retention of CC skills are similar regardless of training format; however, retention of other resuscitation skills may be better when taught in a spaced format.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

20 keywords...

hide…