Early or Late Booster in Basic Life Support for Health Care Professionals

Does an Early Booster Session Improve Performance and Retention of Basic Life Support Skills Compared to a Late Booster in Health Care Professionals? A Simulation-based Randomized Controlled Trial.

Attrition of skills after basic life support (BLS) training is common. Psychology studies have established that for basic memory recall tasks, spaced learning strategies improve retention. Spaced learning is often organized as a refresher or 'booster' course after initial training. This study aims to investigate if this principle holds true for BLS skills, which require rapid memory recall and efficient deployment of procedural skills while under time pressure.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Basic Life Support
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Early Booster Teaching; Other: Late Booster Teaching

Detailed Description

Health care professionals who have not received BLS training in the 6 months leading up to the date of participation will be recruited from local health care institutions in the greater-Ottawa area. Participants will be randomized into one of three groups: early booster, late booster, or no booster (control). Currently, no booster is the educational standard. The early booster group will receive a booster at 3 weeks, the late booster at 2 months, and no booster for the control. All participants will undergo BLS training, an immediate post-test, and a retention post-test at 4 months. Post-tests involve a simulated cardiac arrest scenario. Raters will be blinded to the group allocation and simulation test order.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 84
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1K 0T2
      • Institut du Savoir Montfort

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

-Healthcare professionals who interact with patients and have not received any BLS training or practice in the 6 months leading up to the date of their participation will be recruited.

Exclusion Criteria:

• under 18 years of age
• non healthcare professionals
• healthcare professionals who don't interact directly with patients
• healthcare professionals who have completed Basic Life Support training in the previous six months

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Early Booster Teaching; The early booster group will receive a booster teaching session at 3 weeks post-training followed by feedback.	Other: Early Booster Teaching; The early booster group will receive a booster teaching session at 3 weeks post-training followed by feedback.
Active Comparator: Late Booster Teaching; The late booster group will receive a booster teaching session at 2 months post-training followed by feedback.	Other: Late Booster Teaching; The late booster group will receive a booster teaching session at 2 months post-training followed by feedback
No Intervention: Control group; The control group will receive no booster teaching at all.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Basic Life Support Performance	Basic Life Support performance, as measured by the standardized Heart and Stroke checklist score	4 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Time to start chest compressions	Time from entering the scene to initiation of compression	4 months
Time to defibrillation	Time from start to defibrillation with AED	4 months
Quality of CPR	Hand placement on lower half of sternum, 30 compressions in no less than 15 and no more than 18 seconds, compresses at least 5 cm, complete recoil after each compression	4 months
Overall BLS performance	Basic Life Support performance, as measured by the standardized Heart and Stroke checklist (PASS OR FAIL)	4 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Hopital Montfort
• Collaborators: Institut du Savoir Montfort
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Richard Waldolf, MD, Hopital Montfort

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 22, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 17, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): July 17, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 26, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 26, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): March 28, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 23, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 22, 2022
• Last Verified: March 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 18-19-08-020

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No