Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Dissemination Study Using Nurses and Volunteers

Study Summary

Each year in the United States, 300,000 people suffer from Cardiac Arrest (CA), and of them there is a 90% mortality rate. Out-of-Hospital arrests in particular have a 1-5% survival to hospital discharge. High quality CPR is crucial to lowering the mortality rate and increasing survival, yet only 15-30% of out-of-hospital CA victims receive bystander CPR. Studies have shown that prompt administration of CPR dramatically improves outcomes. In a recent study from Switzerland, lay bystander CPR doubled the survival rate at one month. Our study will look to train family members of at-risk cardiac patients in the skills of CPR through the American Heart Associations (AHA) CPR Anytime Friends and Family Personal Learning Program (CPR Anytime) to see if these family members are able to learn and perform quality CPR in the event that their family member should suffer a cardiac arrest. The unique feature of the CPR Anytime training is that it is a low-cost, self-learning, video-based program that can be completed in under 30 minutes, saving the time and expense of traditional CPR training courses. While initial work has proven that teaching CPR in hospital using the VSI kit is feasible, little research has been conducted to make the program sustainable.

Primary Outcome

To determine if volunteers or nursing staff can adequately implement a CPR Training Program for at risk family members of patients hospitalized for cardiac risk-factors. Subjects will be given "enroller surveys" in 3-month integrals to assess comfort level with the program.

Interventions

• OTHER CPR Training using the Family and Friends CPR Anytime VSI Kit
• OTHER Implementation of an In-Hospital CPR Training Model