LAUSR

Background and aim: Healthcare workers (HCW) are at increased risk of developing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to a COVID-19 patient is an aerosol-generating procedure Guidelines for personal protective equipment (PPE) use and providing CPR to COVID-19 patients have been developed locally for the purpose of improving patient and HCW safety Medical simulation is used to educate HCWs We aimed to the determine the utility of COVID-19 CPR simulation in improving HCWs ability, confidence and knowledge in managing medical emergencies Methods: 108 HCWs participated in a standardised 1-h moderate-fidelity CPR simulation designed and delivered in the medical simulation laboratory at our tertiary metropolitan hospital in Sydney, Australia Participant-filled surveys were collected pre and post-simulation Data was categorised into assessment of perceived knowledge, confidence and ability in PPE use and providing CPR using a 5-point Likert scale Statistical analyses were performed using the Mann–Whitney U test Results: Of 108 participants, 94 were doctors and 14 nurses The mean subjective scores of confidence in providing CPR pre and post-simulation were 2 3 and 3 9 respectively (p < 0 001);perceived ability to provide CPR pre and post-simulation were 2 5 and 4 0 respectively (p < 0 001);confidence in PPE use pre and post-simulation were 3 1 and 4 2 respectively (p < 0 001);perceived ability in PPE use pre and post-simulation were 3 3 and 4 2 respectively (p < 0 001) (see Fig 1) Adequate knowledge of specific elements of newly developed guidelines improved from 14% to 97% of participants pre and post-simulation Conclusion: Our study shows that during the COVID-19 pandemic, simulation of medical emergency scenarios is a valuable tool in improving knowledge, confidence and perceived ability of HCWs in PPE use and providing CPR in medical emergencies where real-life experience may be limited Inadequate preparation before encountering real-life scenarios in COVID-19 patients may compromise the safety of both patients and healthcare workers