The quality of defibrillation performance among students of the University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

The major objective was to assess the time period from a witnessed ventricular fibrillation (VF) to the first defibrillation (DEF) in a simulated manikin scenario, while the minor objective was to analyze the most common errors that occurred during DEF and the maintenance of 2-min intervals during resuscitation. We examined 210 students (medical faculty students, MF; and paramedic faculty students, PF) who had to treat a patient with VF. In the study we used the Laerdal(®) Training Manikin and the Zoll M Series(®) defibrillator. The mean time period from the witnessed VF to the first DEF was 50.1 s (SD 32.5 s) in the MF group and 62.9 s (SD 36.9 s) in the PF group (no statistically significant difference). The delay resulted from the lack of constant ECG monitoring and charging in the option "Monitor" instead of the option "Defibrillation." The PF group shortened the 2-min cycles between defibrillations. The problems observed during the study were technical and educational. We concluded that the option "Monitor" should be removed from the equipment because it seems to be redundant. The teaching problems were a lack of constant ECG monitoring, incorrect handling of the defibrillator, and not keeping to 2-min loops of CPR.