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.