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Nursing & Health Sciences Research Journal

Abstract

Introduction: To prevent cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills decay, the International Consensus on Resuscitation suggested retraining every three to six months. Current retraining practices nationwide exceed one to two years, suggesting that clinical staff's CPR skills are rarely at optimum proficiency. The Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI) program offers skills decay prevention through quarterly sessions. This manuscript addresses the challenges and opportunities of implementing the RQI program in a hospital system to increase CPR skills quality and cost-savings. Purpose & Methods: This manuscript describes the challenges and opportunities of implementing the RQI program as a quality improvement initiative in a system of hospitals and serves as a guide for implementation at similar institutions considering the adoption of RQI-basic life support (BLS). Results: Multiple successes and challenges were identified during the program implementation. Challenges included learning management system integration and RQI station damage. Successes included a 47% improvement in clinical staff’s psychomotor CPR skills (i.e., compressions, ventilation, and chest compression fraction) and a $1.6 million cost avoidance for the system of hospitals. The RQI program implementation significantly increased the psychomotor skills of the RQI users, satisfaction, staff productivity, and cost avoidance. Discussion: Although implementing the RQI in a system of hospitals brought many challenges, the overall improvement in staff CPR skills and cost-avoidance superseded the cost-benefit analysis and justified its implementation. Implementing this program promotes superior CPR skills that could improve patient outcomes.

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