Study Tests Benefits of Designated CPR Coaches in Pediatric ICUs

A new study published in the American Journal of Critical Care shows the benefits of specialized training at a Wisconsin children’s hospital which "prepared pediatric critical care nurse practitioners to serve as designated cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) coaches to support other clinicians responding to patients experiencing cardiopulmonary arrests.”

The study “examines the descriptive statistics and comparison of arrest data from 2018 to 2021, before and after CPR coach training was implemented in fall 2019.” The work of the researchers builds off of prior research demonstrating that “CPR quality metrics improved during simulated arrests when resuscitation teams incorporated a feedback device and a quality CPR coach.”

A CPR coach is a “supplementary team member who provides real-time, verbal feedback on chest compression quality during a patient’s cardiac arrest.” The PICU that was examined during the study “added a CPR coach to the response team during in-unit compression events and transitioned from standard defibrillator devices to one that functions as both a defibrillator and a feedback device.” The unit developed “training to orient clinicians to serve as CPR coaches and improve consistent use of a code team member in the coach role, with application of the [new] Zoll defibrillator pads, and use of the visual feedback data during in-unit cardiopulmonary arrests.”

After the intervention, “the presence of a CPR coach increased from 35% to 72%, while application of the Zoll defibrillator pads increased from 50% to 72%. Additionally, the frequency of the presence of a quality CPR coach and the frequency of Zoll defibrillator pad placement were identical after the intervention, implying that the CPR coach contributed to timely use of the Zoll defibrillator pads as part of the response.” The team had 40 pre-training and 39 post-training cardiopulmonary arrests to analyze by the end of the study period.