Best Practices for Education and Training of Resuscitation Teams for In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Link to article at PubMed

Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2021 Nov 15. doi: 10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.121.008587. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Background: Survival outcomes following in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) vary significantly across hospitals. Research suggests clinician education and training may play a role. We sought to identify best practices related to the education and training of resuscitation teams. Methods: We conducted a descriptive qualitative analysis of semi-structured interview data obtained from in-depth site visits conducted from 2016-2017 at 9 diverse hospitals within the American Heart Association "Get With The Guidelines" registry, selected based on IHCA survival performance (5 top-, 1 middle-, 3 low-performing). We assessed coded data related to education and training including systems learning, informal feedback and debrief, and formal learning through ACLS and mock codes. Thematic analysis was used to identify best practices. Results: In total, 129 interviews were conducted with a variety of hospital staff including nurses, chaplains, security guards, respiratory therapists, physicians, pharmacists, and administrators, yielding 78 hours and 29 minutes of interview time. Four themes related to training and education were identified: engagement, clear communication, consistency, and responsive leadership. Top-performing hospitals encouraged employee engagement with creative marketing of new programs and prioritizing hands-on learning over passive didactics. Clear communication was accomplished with debriefing, structured institutional review, and continual, frequent education for departments. Consistency was a cornerstone to culture change and was achieved with uniform policies for simulation practice as well as reinforced, routine practice (weekly, monthly, quarterly). Finally, top-performing hospitals had responsive leadership teams across multiple disciplines (nursing, respiratory therapy, pharmacy and medicine), who listened and adapted programs to fit the needs of their staff. Conclusions: Among top-performing hospitals excelling in IHCA survival, we identified core elements for education and training of resuscitation teams. Developing tools to expand these areas for hospitals may improve IHCA outcomes.

PMID:34779653 | DOI:10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.121.008587

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