Cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for undergraduates from nonmedical majors: Effectiveness of the three tiers model

Background Integrating cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in undergraduate education would help to increase the rate of bystander CPR. However, few qualified trainers are available for this purpose. Training student nurses to become CPR trainers on campus could reduce this shortage. Purpose The purposes of this study were to assess CPR skills of students from nonmedical majors and to examine the effectiveness of the three tiers model for CPR training. Settings One public university in Jordan. Participants Student nurses and undergraduates from nonmedical majors. Method Five student nurses attended CPR training courses based on the American Heart Association CPR guidelines. The trainees provided the same CPR training to a sample of 197 undergraduates from nonmedical majors. The participants were asked to imagine a real‐life scenario of out‐of‐hospital cardiopulmonary arrest and to perform CPR on a manikin. Assessment of skills was made before and after training, using a structured observational checklist. Results In the pretest, participants showed poor CPR skills with a pass rate of only 4%. In the posttest, participants demonstrated significant improvement: t(196) = 26.78, P = 0.00. Conclusion The three tiers model for CPR training would be an effective strategy to compensate for the shortage in the number of certified CPR trainers.