Clinical trial NCT02998723: Early or Late Booster for Basic Life Support?
Official title: Does an Early Booster Session Improve Performance and Retention of Skills in Basic Life Support Compared to a Later Booster? A Simulation Based Randomized Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Basic Life Support
Keywords: Basic Life Support
Education, Medical
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
Learning
Lead sponsor: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2016-12-20
Enrollment: 95
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: 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.

Detailed description: Novice laypeople who have not received BLS training in the 6 months leading up to the date of participation will be recruited from the University of Ottawa and the general public. 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.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Laypeople who 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 old;
* Non layperson and Basic Life Training in less than 6 months.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Basic Life Support performance, as measured by the standardized Heart and Stroke Heartsaver checklist
timeFrame: 4 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Time to start chest compression;
timeFrame: 4 months
measure: Accuracy of compression depth
timeFrame: 4 months
measure: Compression ratio
timeFrame: 4 months
measure: Hand position
timeFrame: 4 months
measure: Tidal volume
timeFrame: 4 months
measure: Ventilation success rate
timeFrame: 4 months
measure: Time to defibrillation using AED.
timeFrame: 4 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Ottawa
country: Canada
facility: The Ottawa Hospital
state: Ontario
Study officials:
affiliation: The Ottawa Hospital
name: Sylvain Boet, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Boet S, Waldolf R, Bould C, Lam S, Burns JK, Moffett S, McBride G, Ramsay T, Bould MD. Early or late booster for basic life support skill for laypeople: a simulation-based randomized controlled trial. CJEM. 2022 Jun;24(4):408-418. doi: 10.1007/s43678-022-00291-3. Epub 2022 Apr 19.