C ardiac arrest occurs in a wide variety of settings, from the unanticipated event in the out-of-hospital setting to anticipated arrests in the intensive care unit. Outcome from cardiac arrest is a function of many factors including the willingness of bystanders to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the ability of rescuers to integrate knowledge and psychomotor skills, the quality of performance delivered by individual rescuers and teams, and the efficiency and effectiveness of post-cardiac arrest care.The Chain of Survival is a metaphor used to organize and describe the integrated set of time-sensitive, coordinated actions necessary to maximize survival from cardiac arrest. The use of evidence-based education and implementation strategies can optimize the links of that chain.Strengthening the Chain of Survival in the prehospital setting requires focus on prevention and immediate recognition of cardiac arrest, increasing the likelihood of high-quality bystander CPR and early defibrillation, and improving regional systems of care. In the hospital setting, organized efforts targeting early identification and prevention of deterioration in patients at risk can decrease the incidence of cardiac arrest. The challenge for resuscitation programs is twofold: to ensure that providers acquire and maintain the necessary knowledge, skills, and team behavior to maximize resuscitation outcome; and to assist response systems in developing, implementing, and sustaining an evidence-based Chain of Survival.Maximizing survival from cardiac arrest requires improvement in resuscitation education and the implementation of systems that support the delivery of high-quality resuscitation and postarrest care, including mechanisms to systematically evaluate resuscitation performance. Well-designed resuscitation education can encourage the delivery of high-quality CPR. In addition continuous quality improvement processes should close the feedback loop and narrow the gap between ideal and actual performance. Community-and hospitalbased resuscitation programs should systematically monitor cardiac arrests, the level of resuscitation care provided, and outcomes. The cycle of measurement, benchmarking, feedback, and change provides fundamental information necessary to optimize resuscitation care and maximize survival.This chapter reviews key educational issues that affect the quality of resuscitation performance and describes major implementation and team-related issues shown to improve outcomes. The information is organized into four major categories: willingness to perform CPR, educational design, improving resuscitation quality, and issues related to implementation and outcomes.While Willingness to PerformWithout immediate initiation of CPR, most victims of cardiac arrest will die. Bystander CPR can significantly improve survival rates from cardiac arrest, 3 but recent evidence indicates that only 15% to 30% of victims of out-of-hospital arrest receive CPR before EMS arrival. 4 Strategies to increase the incidence of bystander-ini...

The use of a standardized script by novice instructors to facilitate team debriefings improves acquisition of knowledge and team leader behavioral performance during subsequent simulated cardiopulmonary arrests. Implementation of debriefing scripts in resuscitation courses may help to improve learning outcomes and standardize delivery of debriefing, particularly for novice instructors.

The quality of pediatric resuscitative care delivered across the spectrum of emergency departments (EDs) in the United States is poorly described. In a recent study, more than 4000 EDs completed the Pediatric Readiness Survey (PRS); however, the correlation of PRS scores with the quality of simulated or real patient care has not been described. OBJECTIVE To measure and compare the quality of resuscitative care delivered to simulated pediatric patients across a spectrum of EDs and to examine the correlation of PRS scores with quality measures. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This prospective multicenter cohort study evaluated 58 interprofessional teams in their native pediatric or general ED resuscitation bays caring for a series of 3 simulated critically ill patients (sepsis, seizure, and cardiac arrest). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES A composite quality score (CQS) was measured as the sum of 4 domains: (1) adherence to sepsis guidelines, (2) adherence to cardiac arrest guidelines, (3) performance on seizure resuscitation, and (4) teamwork. Pediatric Readiness Survey scores and health care professional demographics were collected as independent data. Correlations were explored between CQS and individual domain scores with PRS. RESULTS Overall, 58 teams from 30 hospitals participated (8 pediatric EDs [PEDs], 22 general EDs [GEDs]). The mean CQS was 71 (95% CI, 68-75); PEDs had a higher mean CQS (82; 95% CI, 79-85) vs GEDs (66; 95% CI, 63-69) and outperformed GEDs in all domains. However, when using generalized estimating equations to estimate CQS controlling for clustering of the data, PED status did not explain a higher CQS (β = 4.28; 95% CI, −4.58 to 13.13) while the log of pediatric patient volume did explain a higher CQS (β = 9.57; 95% CI, 2.64-16.49). The correlation of CQS to PRS was moderate (r = 0.51; P < .001). The correlation was weak for cardiac arrest (r = 0.24; P = .07), weak for sepsis (ρ = 0.45; P < .001) and seizure (ρ = 0.43; P = .001), and strong for teamwork (ρ = 0.71; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE This multicenter study noted significant differences in the quality of simulated pediatric resuscitative care across a spectrum of EDs. The CQS was higher in PEDs compared with GEDs. However, when controlling for pediatric patient volume and other variables in a multivariable model, PED status does not explain a higher CQS while pediatric patient volume does. The correlation of the PRS was moderate for simulation-based measures of quality.

Objective Effective communication among providers, families, and patients is essential in critical care, but is often inadequate in the pediatric ICU. To address the lack of communication education PCCM fellows receive, the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh PICU developed a simulation-based communication course, Pediatric Critical Care Communication Course (PC3). PCCM trainees have limited prior training in communication and will have increased confidence in their communication skills after participating in the PC3 course. Design PC3 is a 3-day course taken once during fellowship featuring simulation with actors portraying family members. Prior to and after the course, fellows complete an anonymous survey asking about 1) prior instruction in communication 2) preparedness for difficult conversations, 3) attitudes about end-of-life care, and 4) course satisfaction. We compared pre- and post-course surveys using paired student’s t-test. Main Results Most of the 38 fellows who participated over 4 years had no prior communication training in conducting a care conference (70%), providing bad news (57%), or discussing end of life options (75%). Across all four iterations of the course, fellows after the course reported increased confidence across many topics of communication, including giving bad news, conducting a family conference, eliciting both a family’s emotional reaction to their child’s illness and their concerns at the end of a child’s life, discussing a child’s code status, and discussing religious issues. Specifically, fellows in 2014 reported significant increases in self-perceived preparedness to provide empathic communication to families regarding many aspects of discussing critical care, end of life care and religious issues with patients’ families (p<0.05). The majority (90%) of fellows recommended that the course be required in PCCM fellowship. Conclusions The PC3 course increased fellow confidence in having difficult discussions common in the PICU. Fellows highly recommend it as part of PICU education. Further work should focus on the course’s impact on family satisfaction with fellow communication.