Abstract
Despite highly trained healthcare professionals being readily available to respond to In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (IHCA), a patient experiencing an IHCA often remains a devastating event for the patient. Each year in America, 13.5% of all deaths result from sudden cardiac arrest. Even with healthcare professionals certified in Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), the survival rates following an IHCA are not inspiring. The median survival rate to hospital discharge of an adult experiencing IHCA is 26.4% and 49.5% for the pediatric population. Despite a continued focus on improving CPR quality from the American Heart Association (AHA), the survival to hospital discharge rates remains virtually unchanged over the past few decades, indicating that opportunity exists to better prepare medical emergency response teams. IHCA is an event requiring a synchronized and rapid response from the medical emergency response team. The purpose of this scholarly inquiry paper is to explore the existing literature on enhanced cardiac resuscitation training. An integrative literature review identified randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental trials, and various pretest-posttest trials that provide implications and recommendations for resuscitation training advancement. This extensive literature review uncovered both background and outcome themes. Background themes included poor resuscitation outcomes, a lack of appropriate contextualization in current resuscitation training regimens, chaotic environments during an IHCA, meager execution of teamwork, and nonadherence to the guidelines put forward by the American Heart Association (AHA) and European Resuscitation Council (ERC). Through various resuscitation training implementations, the literature appraised identified superior teamwork, enhanced satisfaction and confidence of the healthcare professional, and improved CPR quality as outcomes of the multiple interventions utilized. This scholarly inquiry paper provides recommendations to advance the successful functioning of the medical emergency response team, and technical and nontechnical skills of healthcare professionals responding to IHCA. Additionally, specific implications for nursing, recommendations for the future of cardiac resuscitation training and team dynamics, and conclusions from the literature are identified. These findings support the advancement of resuscitation training, improve the function of the medical emergency response team during an IHCA, and potentially increase the survival to hospital discharge rates of patients experiencing IHCA.
Date of Completion of Thesis/SIP
Summer 9-15-2020
Document Type
Scholarly Inquiry Paper (SIP)
Degree Name
Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
Department
Nursing
First Advisor
Dr. Kimberly Langer
Second Advisor
Dr. David Steele
Recommended Citation
Pahl, Dominick, "Cardiac Resuscitation Training: An Integrative Literature Review" (2020). Nursing Masters Papers. 388.
https://openriver.winona.edu/nursingmasters/388
