Recall after cardiac arrest scenario testing

SummaryThe Resuscitation Council (UK) Advanced Life Support (ALS) Course is a multidisciplinary training course which teaches participants how to manage the resuscitation of a patient at risk of or in cardiac arrest. To reduce variability in assessments, four standardised patient scenarios have been developed with common performance criteria. The aim of the study was to establish how much candidates remembered about their test in order to assess the potential for collusion. Eighty-nine candidates were asked immediately after testing what they remembered about their ALS scenario. Recall of the underlying problem with the simulated patient was good (85 [96%]). Forty-two [47%] correctly remembered the initial cardiac arrest rhythm and 55 [61%] the subsequent cardiac arrest rhythm. Fifty-nine [60%] candidates passed the assessment. Candidates who passed the assessment were significantly more likely to correctly recall the initial and subsequent cardiac arrest rhythms than those who did not. However, even in this group, the overall recall of all elements of the scenario was correct in only 49% of instances. This study demonstrated that immediately after testing candidates had good recall of the initial clinical scenario with which they were presented, but poor recall of cardiac arrest rhythms during the simulated resuscitation attempt. These findings provide some reassurance that the likelihood of successful collusion improving subsequent candidates performance is likely to be small as recall of the scenario progression is limited.