Tai-hwan Uhm, Heakyung Choi, Seok Hwan Hong, Hyungsub Kim, Minju Kang, Keunyoung Kim, Hyejin Seo, Eunyoung Ki, Hyeryeong Lee, Heejeong Ahn, Uk-jin Choi, Sang Woong Park
J Educ Eval Health Prof. 2024;21:13. Published online June 12, 2024
Purpose The duties of paramedics and emergency medical technicians (P&EMTs) are continuously changing due to developments in medical systems. This study presents evaluation goals for P&EMTs by analyzing their work, especially the tasks that new P&EMTs (with less than 3 years’ experience) find difficult, to foster the training of P&EMTs who could adapt to emergency situations after graduation.
Methods A questionnaire was created based on prior job analyses of P&EMTs. The survey questions were reviewed through focus group interviews, from which 253 task elements were derived. A survey was conducted from July 10, 2023 to October 13, 2023 on the frequency, importance, and difficulty of the 6 occupations in which P&EMTs were employed.
Results The P&EMTs’ most common tasks involved obtaining patients’ medical histories and measuring vital signs, whereas the most important task was cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The task elements that the P&EMTs found most difficult were newborn delivery and infant CPR. New paramedics reported that treating patients with fractures, poisoning, and childhood fever was difficult, while new EMTs reported that they had difficulty keeping diaries, managing ambulances, and controlling infection.
Conclusion Communication was the most important item for P&EMTs, whereas CPR was the most important skill. It is important for P&EMTs to have knowledge of all tasks; however, they also need to master frequently performed tasks and those that pose difficulties in the field. By deriving goals for evaluating P&EMTs, changes could be made to their education, thereby making it possible to train more capable P&EMTs.
Purpose This study aimed to assess the effect of simulation teaching in critical care courses in a nursing study program on the quality of chest compressions of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Methods An observational cross-sectional study was conducted at the Faculty of Health Studies at the Technical University of Liberec. The success rate of CPR was tested in exams comparing 2 groups of students, totaling 66 different individuals, who completed half a year (group 1: intermediate exam with model simulation) or 1.5 years (group 2: final theoretical critical care exam with model simulation) of undergraduate nursing critical care education taught completely with a Laerdal SimMan 3G simulator. The quality of CPR was evaluated according to 4 components: compression depth, compression rate, time of correct frequency, and time of correct chest release.
Results Compression depth was significantly higher in group 2 than in group 1 (P=0.016). There were no significant differences in the compression rate (P=0.210), time of correct frequency (P=0.586), or time of correct chest release (P=0.514).
Conclusion Nursing students who completed the final critical care exam showed an improvement in compression depth during CPR after 2 additional semesters of critical care teaching compared to those who completed the intermediate exam. The above results indicate that regularly scheduled CPR training is necessary during critical care education for nursing students.