Advanced cardiac life support: comparative analysis between the results of theoretical valuation in two teaching modalities

The advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) course is a continued medical educational proposal in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and cardiovascular emergencies. The course is part of program of Emergency Cardiovascular Care by the American Heart Association (AHA), which in the United States is one the most successful initiatives of public health of the past decades. The manager of the course and training of this program in Brazil is the National Council of Resuscitation (CNR), which has several regional training centers that develop these activities.

In Minas Gerais the training center was created in 1998, it belongs to the local society of critical care (SOMITI) and administers the courses of ACLS and basic life support. The courses follow the AHA protocol. Every 4 years, the protocol is revised, and the training topics are replaced to become more updated in techniques and didatics as well. In September 2000 at the World Council on Science in Resuscitation, in California, the last review happened, when the guidelines were standardized all over the world and the course of ACLS was remodeled. The changes in the way of teaching the course were basically in the didactics of the program, with the withdrawing of theoretical classes and an increase of the practical classes. It therefore becomes necessary to develop this study with the main goal of evaluating comparatively the results of the students in the theoretical valuations of the course of ACLS provider, between the two teaching modalities.

The study concerns an exploratory study, transversal design, accomplished at the training center of the SOMITI, in Belo Horizonte, MG. The sample was composed of 173 valuations of the pre and post tests, of eight classes of the course, four of each teaching modality. The data are from the data bank of the mentioned training center. The results show about the student profile that most of them were physicians, general practitioners, within 5 years or less of graduation, and act in critical care. About the comparative analysis, there was no difference in the theoretical evaluations between the two teaching modalities, concerning the theoretical knowledge of the students, during the course. We hope that results of this study help in increasing the instructors' knowledge about the students' results on the evaluations, allowing and stimulating considerations about its actions and becoming a reference to the other training and research centers.