Bystander rate of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is still low worldwide
because of inadequate skills and knowledge. Training the public on CPR is one of
the methods to increase the bystander CPR rate. This study aimed to compare the
efficacy in acquiring and retaining CPR skills and knowledge among secondary
school students in Klang Valley trained by school teachers and medical students.
We recruited five school teachers and five medical students as trainers. They
were trained in several sessions by American Heart Association (AHA)-certified
instructors using the video-assisted CPR training module. The recipients were 44
secondary school students divided between the teacher’s group and the medical
student’s group. We compared knowledge and psychomotor skills between
these two groups prior, immediately after and at three months after CPR training.
Students in the teacher’s group showed a higher increase in knowledge comparable
to the medical student’s group (median score difference 3 vs 2, p>0.05) and in
psychomotor skill (median score difference 5 vs. 7, p<0.05). The level of knowledge
and skills decreased after 3 months but remained significantly higher than at
baseline for both groups. In conclusion, teachers could provide CPR training to
their students as effective and retainable as medical students. This study aims to
create an opportunity to teach CPR to the public in a larger scale