Development and Evaluation of Just-in-Time Training to Provide Cardio-Pulmonary Resusciation

More than 350,000 people die annually of cardiac arrest. In response to this epidemic, automated defibrillators are advocated, but they do not provide important respiratory support. However, adding respiratory support makes the system more complex and difficult to use. To solve this problem we developed a graphical computer based “just-in-time” training that instructs a responder to follow a standard treatment protocol. We simulated a medical emergency in a patient simulator and asked novice volunteers to care for the patient. When using a paper-based version of the treatment protocol (based on a NASA protocol), subjects took significant longer to remove an obstruction from the airway and stabilize the injured person than when using an animated graphic treatment protocol. These findings validate the potential of graphically based just-in-time training to instruct novices in tasks they have not performed before.