Analysis of Performance in Advanced Cardiac Life Support Written Test of Trainees from Different Professions and Working Units

Background and Purpose: Advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) has become an obligatory skill for most health care workers. We evaluated the performance of trainees from different work backgrounds according to written test scores after ACLS training courses and analyzed their learning outcomes related to each subtopic. Methods: All trainees participated in one of the three ACLS courses in a medical center within two months were evaluated with the same written test at the end of the courses. Independent t-tests were used to compare the performance between doctors and nurses. Analysis of variance models were used to further compare the performance of the three nurse groups from different working units. Results: There were 181 trainees enrolled in this study. The mean scores for doctors and nurses were 76.9 ± 11.4 and 68.2 ± 11.9, respectively (p＜0.001). Doctors had better understanding than nurses in the subtopics of ＂Cardiac Arrest and Post-Resuscitation Care＂ (p＜0.05), ＂Arrhythmia＂ (p＜0.001), and ＂Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) and Stroke＂ (p＜0.001). For the nurse groups, total scores were not significantly different among the three groups. However, critical care surgical nurses had the lowest scores in the subtopics of ＂Cardiac Arrest and Post-Resuscitation Care＂ (p＜0.05) and ＂ACS and Stroke＂ (p＜0.05), followed by the non-critical care nurses. Critical care medical nurses had the highest scores among the three groups. Conclusions: Trainees from different work backgrounds and professions had various learning outcomes in certain subtopics of the ACLS course. Flexibility in the course design may be needed for particular needs of the different participant groups.