Resuscitation training Resuscitation skills are generally taught to health professionals through courses in and advanced life support. These courses teach skills for the purpose of preserving or restoring life by the establishment of, and/or maintenance of, airway, breathing, circulation and associated emergency care. The Australian Resuscitation Council guidelines for basic life support recommend that, as a minimum, learning objectives for training must include: recognition of an emergency ability to call an emergency response provider competence in compressions and rescue breathing emotional preparation for the capability to act in an emergency. Nurses and allied health professionals are commonly required to undertake annual competency training days which include basic life support training. This is in accordance with the Australian Resuscitation Council recommendation that all those who are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation refresh their knowledge and skills at least annually. However, the effectiveness of this approach has been questioned. There is evidence that while knowledge is retained over time, practical resuscitation skills decay more quickly. An Australian review in 2013 concluded that there is little evidence to support the widespread requirement for annual resuscitation training for experienced critical care nurses. This review recommended a shift to maintenance of resuscitation skills, rather than completion of assessments. Despite hospitals making significant investments in resuscitation training, and cardiac arrest there has been little associated improvement in mortality rates over the last 40 years. Failures to improve mortality rates may in part be because when hospital cardiopulmonary arrest occurs, it is often as the end point of failures to detect or adequately respond to a person’s clinical deterioration while it is potentially reversible. Interdisciplinary training courses Since the advent of formalised recognition and response systems, efforts have been made by acute care providers to move the focus of training courses to earlier in the continuum of clinical deterioration. A number of interdisciplinary courses have been developed in and internationally with the purpose of teaching post-graduate hospital-based clinicians the skills and knowledge required for more timely and effective recognition and response to clinical deterioration. The content of these courses generally includes: signs, symptoms and triggers for detecting deterioration systems for escalating care systematic, rapid, prioritised assessment and treatment of the person’s physical deterioration common causes of clinical deterioration such as sepsis and hypoglycaemia non-technical skills such as communication and teamwork
Resuscitation training Resuscitation skills are generally taught to health professionals through courses in and advanced life support. These courses teach skills for the purpose of preserving or restoring life by the establishment of, and/or maintenance of, airway, breathing, circulation and associated emergency care. The Australian Resuscitation Council guidelines for basic life support recommend that, as a minimum, learning objectives for training must include: recognition of an emergency ability to call an emergency response provider competence in compressions and rescue breathing emotional preparation for the capability to act in an emergency. Nurses and allied health professionals are commonly required to undertake annual competency training days which include basic life support training. This is in accordance with the Australian Resuscitation Council recommendation that all those who are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation refresh their knowledge and skills at least annually. However, the effectiveness of this approach has been questioned. There is evidence that while knowledge is retained over time, practical resuscitation skills decay more quickly. An Australian review in 2013 concluded that there is little evidence to support the widespread requirement for annual resuscitation training for experienced critical care nurses. This review recommended a shift to maintenance of resuscitation skills, rather than completion of assessments. Despite hospitals making significant investments in resuscitation training, and cardiac arrest there has been little associated improvement in mortality rates over the last 40 years. Failures to improve mortality rates may in part be because when cardiopulmonary arrest occurs, it is often as the end point of failures to detect or adequately respond to a person’s clinical deterioration while it is potentially reversible. Interdisciplinary training courses Since the advent of formalised recognition and response systems, efforts have been made by acute care providers to move the focus of training courses to earlier in the continuum of clinical deterioration. A number of interdisciplinary courses have been developed in and internationally with the purpose of teaching post-graduate hospital-based clinicians the skills and knowledge required for more timely and effective recognition and response to clinical deterioration. The content of these courses generally includes: signs, symptoms and triggers for detecting deterioration systems for escalating care systematic, rapid, prioritised assessment and treatment of the person’s physical deterioration common causes of clinical deterioration such as sepsis and hypoglycaemia non-technical skills such as communication and teamwork hospital
Training-and-competencies-for-recognising-and-responding-to-clinical-deterioration-in-acute-care-consultation-paper-Apr-2014.docx