Basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation program for high school students (PROCES): How many concepts and skills remain one year later?

PROCES was supported in part by Nestle España SA. Study objectives: Programa de Reanimacio cardiopulmonar Orientat a Centres dʹEnsenyanca Secundaria (PROCES) is specifically aimed at teaching basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to teenagers within their high school period, which is mandatory in our education system. Therefore, nearly all the future adult population will be expected to perform basic CPR as needed. The aim was to analyze whether a group of high school students who had completed this program 1 year ago still retained basic CPR concepts and skills. Methods: From 400 students who had completed PROCES the year before, 40 were randomly picked. Such students were asked to take the same 20-question test they just passed twice (preprogram and postprogram) 1 year ago. The test was divided into 2 parts: first part, 10 questions related to basic CPR concepts; second part, 10 questions about basic CPR skills. Scores from this test were compared with those obtained from previous postprogram and preprogram tests. We considered that students still kept basic CPR skills if they correctly answered at least 8 questions of the second part of the test. Results are presented in percentages and mean (SD). For comparisons, the Studentʹs t test was used. Results: When marks obtained from 1 year later were compared with those from the postprogram test, a downward trend was noted in test scores (more than 20 points: 13.6 [3.7] to 13.1 [3.5]; P=.54), concept part score (more than 10 points: 5.7 [1.8] to 5.6 [2.2], P=.82), and skill part score (over 10 points: 7.8 [2.3] to 7.3 [1.9], P=.29); however, none of them achieved statistical significance. Besides, all these scores were significantly higher than those reached from the preprogram test: 8.3 (1.9) points for the test, 4 (1.3) for the concept part, and 4.3 (1.2) for the skill part (P<.001 for all comparisons). The percentage of students who retained basic CPR skills 1 year later had decreased slightly from 65% after program completion to 45% (P=.11) but remained significantly higher than the percentage obtained at the beginning of the program (0%, P=.001). Conclusion: Students who learned basic CPR through PROCES show a downward trend in acquired concepts and skills, although the sample size does not allow us to reach conclusions about statistical significance. Such a decrease agrees with the results from other groups to whom basic CPR is taught and suggests that a reminder course should regularly be performed.