Objectives: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation rates and survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are poor in the UK compared with areas abroad that deliver mandatory training to all school children. We sought to identify barriers to training and develop a strategy to enable delivery of this training.
Methods: Qualitative analysis, comprising semistructured interviews and group discussions, covering 14 schools in the metropolitan borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire.
Results: Only three schools out of 14 were delivering training to entire year groups. Barriers include lack of resources, lack of training for teachers and difficulty in initiating a programme. Strategies were developed to overcome these barriers with the result that four additional schools are now teaching a whole year group. There is no single solution and bespoke plans may be needed for each school.
Conclusion: The establishment of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in secondary schools in the UK is achievable. The commonly perceived barriers to establishment of training are all surmountable, but solving them does not necessarily ensure universal coverage. Support from healthcare professionals, in particular public health, is essential to ensure that the training is as widespread as possible. Mandatory inclusion of this training on the school curriculum, as seen in other countries, would result in significantly improved survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiorespiratory arrest. Solutions to improve training have been proposed, which could be used in other parts of Europe where such training is not a mandatory requirement.