Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 181, February 2017, Pages 172-176.e3
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original Articles
Implementing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training Programs in High Schools: Iowa's Experience

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.10.037Get rights and content

Objective

To understand perceived barriers to providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) education, implementation processes, and practices in high schools.

Study design

Iowa has required CPR as a graduation requirement since 2011 as an unfunded mandate. A cross-sectional study was performed through multiple choice surveys sent to Iowa high schools to collect data about school demographics, details of CPR programs, cost, logistics, and barriers to implementation, as well as automated external defibrillator training and availability.

Results

Eighty-four schools responded (26%), with the most frequently reported school size of 100-500 students and faculty size of 25-50. When the law took effect, 51% of schools had training programs already in place; at the time of the study, 96% had successfully implemented CPR training. Perceived barriers to implementation were staffing, time commitment, equipment availability, and cost. The average estimated startup cost was <$1000 US, and the yearly maintenance cost was <$500 with funds typically allocated from existing school resources. The facilitator was a school official or volunteer for 81% of schools. Average estimated training time commitment per student was <2 hours. Automated external defibrillators are available in 98% of schools, and 61% include automated external defibrillator training in their curriculum.

Conclusions

Despite perceived barriers, school CPR training programs can be implemented with reasonable resource and time allocations.

Section snippets

Methods

A cross-sectional study was performed through electronic surveys sent to all 346 Iowa high schools. A 20-item multiple choice questionnaire was developed to obtain descriptive data (Appendix; available at www.jpeds.com). Email contact addresses for each school principal or superintendent were obtained from publicly available athletic association directories. Each survey was accompanied by a short introductory email explaining the purposes of the questionnaire. Compensation was not provided for

Results

Completed surveys were received from 84 high schools across Iowa, a response rate of 26%. A flow diagram of the completed surveys demonstrates the breakdown of responses (Figure 1; available at www.jpeds.com). When the law took effect in 2011, 51% of schools had training programs already in place, and at the time of the survey 96% of schools had successfully implemented CPR training. Responding high schools were distributed throughout the state and represented a range of student body sizes,

Discussion

The results of our survey of Iowa high schools show that, once the training programs were started successfully, anticipated obstacles did not match with the reality of implementation. The perceived barriers identified by the responses to the multiple choice survey were similar to a 2003 report describing high school CPR programs in Washington state that identified the most significant barriers were time within the curriculum to teach CPR, lack of funds, and instructor scheduling difficulties.10

References (26)

  • D. Brookoff et al.

    Do blacks get bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation as often as whites?

    Ann Emerg Med

    (1994)
  • M. Holmberg et al.

    Effect of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients in Sweden

    Resuscitation

    (2000)
  • G. Nichol et al.

    Regional variation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest incidence and outcome

    JAMA

    (2008)

    • Cited by (0)

    The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

    View full text
    © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.