Belgian dispatchers' telephone cardiopulmonary resuscitation protocol training: an evaluation study

Early bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is one of the most effective interventions in improving outcome from sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. However, despite large-scale community training programs, citizen-CPR rates have been persistently low. Therefore, a recent report of the 2010 European Resuscitation Council guidelines has re-emphasized the need for dispatchers to be specifically trained in starting telephone CPR protocol for suspected cardiac arrest. In accordance, 112 Belgian dispatchers have been trained for resuscitation assistance by telephone, using a specific protocol named ALERT (Algorithme Liegeois d'Encadrement a la Reanimation Telephonique). The present work evaluates the educational aspects of this recent implementation.