The state funded Stavanger University Hospital, located in Stavanger, Norway is the country’s fourth largest and provides general healthcare services for the immediate population of 300,000 with specialised services, such as PCI and neuro surgery available to 470,000 people. Approximately 65,000 patients are admitted each year; and this number is steadily increasing. The 700 bed hospital currently employs 5,500 personnel, including 1600 nurses and 600 physicians. Core activities are patient treatment, research, training of healthcare personnel and patients along with their immediate families. More than 70% of all hospitalisations are acute admissions.

Aiming to raise BLS skill levels for all

Stavanger University Hospital was already self sufficient with CPR instructors for its own healthcare personnel, when the hospital Board of Directors wanted to extend the training and provide CPR training for the entire staff. The aim was to raise the skills level for all hospital employees and to enable everyone, regardless of professional background, to perform CPR following a witnessed cardiac arrest. Another goal was to train as many family members as possible. As group training with MiniAnne/CPRAnytime allows for numerous people to train together and to complete CPR training in less than 30 minutes, Stavanger University Hospital calculated that this training concept would yield more efficient and affordable training. Hence, the hospital set out to train more than 5,000 employees and to get the task done within a six month period.

Funding

The University Hospital donated one MiniAnne/CPRAnytime kit to each employee. The kit includes a personal, inflatable manikin (suitable for mouth to mouth ventilations and chest compressions) and a 24-minute instructional/interactive DVD.

The hospital liaised with the local Resuscitation Council to ensure that their curriculum complied with the 2005 Resuscitation Guidelines for basic life support.

Facilitating group training

A DVD player, an amplifier, and a large screen were placed in a reserved meeting room with a capacity for 50 participants. Nine work days were set aside to facilitate repetitive group training sessions, hence allowing participants to drop in at their own convenience. Two facilitators were present during each training session, where 50 employees trained together each time. An updated list of hospital employees was used to record course attendance and the delivery of MiniAnne/CPRAnytime kits. Employees were requested to register for the voluntary CPR training. Those who were unable or unwilling to sign up for the facilitated group training could opt to train with MiniAnne/CPRAnytime either at their own ward/office or at home. Responsibility for training of employees that failed to attend the facilitated group training was handed over to the individual clinical department directors.  

Estimated training costs

The University Hospital paid less than EUR 30 per MiniAnne/CPRAnytime kit, 11 employees spent altogether 370 working hours organising and running the campaign  (4 minutes per employee), and each employee spent 30 minutes completing the training.