Health education classes in 15 Philadelphia School District high schools were selected, with one Control and one Study Class per school. Both completed CPR/AED pre- and post-tests to assess cognitive knowledge and psychomotor skills. After pre-tests, both were taught CPR skills and AED use by their health teacher. Study Classes developed innovative programs to learn, teach, and retain CPR/AED skills. The study culminated with Study Classes competing in multiple CPR/AED skills events at the CPR/AED Olympic event. Outcomes included post-tests, Mock Code, and presentation scores. All students’ cognitive and psychomotor skills improved with standard classroom education (p < 0.001). Competition with other schools at the CPR/AED Olympics and the development of their own student-directed education programs resulted in remarkable retention of psychomotor skill scores in the Study Class (88%) vs the Control Class (79%) (p < 0.001). Olympic participants averaged 93.1% on the Mock Code with 10 of 12 schools ≥94%.
Students who developed creative and novel methods of teaching and learning resuscitation skills showed outstanding application of these skills in a Mock Code with remarkable psychomotor skill retention, potentially empowering a new generation of effectively trained CPR bystanders.