Defi catches on Implementation of a curriculum for resuscitation in secondary schools

Sudden cardiac arrest is still one of the most frequent causes of death. Teaching resuscitation in schools was already successfully implemented in Scandinavian countries. Following a recommendation of the conference of german stateministers of education in June 2014, additional tuition for resuscitation is to be implemented in german schools starting in seventh grade. The present study aimed to assess the level of knowledge of seventh grade students in the field of life support and to implement curricular standards for resuscitation courses in secondary schools. Using a standardized questionnaire, students in seventh grade of five schools in Cologne were interrogated about their knowledge on resuscitation and defibrillation. This assessment was taken as basis for developing a curricular teaching concept by the Cologne heart centre in cooperation with the department of biology and technical didactics at the University of Cologne. This tutorial concept was integrated in scholar plans for the first time in the school year 2014/2015. At the end of the school year the students' knowledge got reevaluated. As expected, the technical knowledge of the interviewed students is low, however confidence in their own abilities is high. Most of the interviewed persons would be willing to perform chest compressions (72,26%) and dare using an automated external defibrillator (AED, 64,38%). The exact position of defibrillator pads cannot be precisely indicated by most students (8,40%), compression point, -depth and -frequency are known by just one third of students. Already one-time performance of the live-saving lesson resulted in a clear increase of knowledge about resuscitation. The willingness to perform resuscitation measures and confidence in their own abilities are high in seventh grade students. Therefore, the recommendation of the conference of german stateministers of education in June 2014 addresses the right target group. Long-term success of the presented educational concept will be analysed and reported in a longitudinal study