“Dare to save a life at school”: implementation of a basic life support cycle in the PE curriculum

Introduction In Europe, about 400,000 people have a sudden cardiac arrest every year, with a survival rate of 5-10% (ERC, 2015). Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) could increase this survival rate by 2-3 times. Unfortunately, less than 20% of the general population is able to perform it effectively (Plant & Taylor, 2013). Besides, most of the public facilities are now equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs). In a physical literacy perspective (Whitehead, 2013), PE teachers are ideally placed to teach basic life support (BLS) to their students (Colquhoun, 2012). Methods In this pilot study, a female PE teacher was trained to a BLS cycle adapted to the PE curriculum. The BLS cycle, including 6 sessions of PE, was developed in a participatory approach by a team of BLS specialists, PE teacher educators and by the PE teacher herself. During this BLS cycle, students learned the CPR & AED protocols, taught by different teaching styles (practice, reciprocal, self-check) with hands-on application on training manikin and AED. A process analysis was performed from the video recording of the sessions and from satisfactory questionnaires. Students’ knowledge of the BLS protocol was assessed by a 14 open-ended questionnaire at baseline (T0) and after the intervention (T1). Practical application of the BLS protocol was assessed on a manikin measuring CPR performance at T1. Results and conclusions The BLS program was taught to two classes of high school female students (n=52), aged 17.1 ± 0.3 years. At T0, if students were mostly aware of the emergency number (71.4%), very few were able to localise the chest compression (14.3%) and AEDs’ electrodes (2%) areas. Most of them did not feel able to perform BLS (89.8%) and would agree to learn it during PE lessons (97.9%). Results at T1 are expected to highlight improvements of the theoretical and practical BLS’ competencies of the students

“Dare to save a life at school”: Implementation of a CPR+AED sequence in the PE curriculum

In Europe, about 500,000 people suffer sudden cardiac arrest each year, with a survival rate of 5–10% (ERC, 2015). Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) could increase this survival rate by 2–3 times. Unfortunately, less than 20% of the general population is able to perform it effectively (Plant & Taylor, 2013). Besides, most of the public facilities are now equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs). In a physical literacy perspective (Whitehead, 2013), PE teachers are ideally placed to teach basic life support (BLS) to their students (Colquhoun, 2012). Eleven PE teachers were trained to teach a CPR + AED sequence adapted to the Belgian French community PE curriculum. 307 students (17.1 ± 0.8 years old) performed hands-on manikin-based instruction and practice during 6 sessions of PE. Knowledge of the CPR + AED protocol was assessed by questionnaire at baseline (T0), after the intervention (T1) and after a three months’ follow-up period (T2). Practical application of the CPR + AED protocol was assessed with an evaluation grid and a manikin measuring CPR performance at T1 and T2. A process analysis was performed from the video recording of the sessions and from satisfactory questionnaires. Preliminary results from the 6 PE teachers who taught the sequence to their students (n = 155) during the first part of the school year exposed significant improvements from T0 to T2 in the knowledge of the CPR + AED protocol (from 7 ± 3.4/20 to 16 ± 2.4/20; p < 0.001). Average score on the evaluation grid was 16 ± 1.7/20 at T1 and remained rather constant at T2 (15.3 ± 1.8/20). Depth and rate of chest compressions remained stable between T1 and T2 (≈105/min.; ≈41 mm). Volume of breaths decreased significantly from T1 to T2 (590 ± 443 ml to 305 ± 248 ml; p < 0.001). The CPR + AED sequence led to encouraging improvements of the knowledge, abilities and confidence of the students. PE teachers felt valuated and able to contribute autonomously to this major public health challenge

« Oser sauver à l’école » : Mise en place d’un cycle de premier secours au cours d’éducation physique

En Europe et aux États-Unis, plus de 700 000 personnes décèdent chaque année des suites d’un arrêt cardiaque (Berdowski et al. 2010). Avec un taux de survie de 2 à 10 % (European Resuscitation Council, 2015), le pronostic vital associé aux arrêts cardiaques est, dès lors, relativement limité. Celui-ci peut être cinq à sept fois supérieur si un témoin pratique une réanimation cardio-pulmonaire (RCP) et une défibrillation durant les premières minutes d’intervention (ERC, 2015). Dans le cadre de cette étude pilote, l’objectif était d’analyser la pertinence, l’impact et la faisabilité de la mise en place d’un cycle de premiers secours dans un contexte scolaire, et, plus particulièrement, dans le programme du cours d’éducation physique. Le cycle, d'une durée de 6 semaines (6 x 50 minutes), a été dispensé à deux classes de rhétoriques (n=51). Les compétences des élèves ont été évaluées à l'aide d'un questionnaire avant et après le cycle, ainsi qu'une grille d'observation évaluant les habiletés gestuelles des élèves lors d'un protocole complet de réanimation de base d’une personne adulte avec un DEA. La moyenne des résultats des élèves au questionnaire est passée de 6,12 ± 3,25/20 (0,5-14) lors du pré-test à 17,32 ± 1,79 /20 (10,5-20) à l’issue du cycle (p=0,00). La moyenne au test pratique est de 17,16 ± 1,72/20 (13,66-20). La séquence de cours proposée a permis d’améliorer les connaissances théoriques des élèves, leurs habiletés gestuelles et leur confiance par rapport à leur capacité à porter secours à une victime d’un arrêt cardiaque, et s'inscrit clairement dans la philosophie du Pacte pour un Enseignement d’Excellence