Each year, thousands of infants and children in North America receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA). Survival rates for IHCA are poor. CPR guidelines published by the AHA highlight that high-quality CPR improves survival and neurological outcomes. Despite CPR training, adherence to guidelines is low. Devices placed on the chest that provide visual feedback during CPR can improve chest compression quality, but there is substantial room for improvement. Strategies are needed to help teams translate visual CPR feedback into optimized CPR delivery. Many institutions have introduced CPR feedback defibrillators into their acute care environments. Optimal incorporation of CPR feedback technology requires CPR providers receive information from the device and adjust CPR performance accordingly.

To address this issue, we developed the CPR Coach “in the simulation lab after recognizing that Resuscitation Leaders cannot simultaneously manage high quality basic life support (BLS), pediatric advanced life support (PALS), diagnose and treat reversible causes and do all well. A CPR Coach provides real time feedback to compressors to optimize compliance with American Heart Association (AHA) CPR guidelines and cognitively unload the Resuscitation Leader, enabling them to focus on the PALS algorithm and reversible causes.

In these modules, you will learn the history of CPR and how the CPR Coach Role was created. You will learn about the main responsibilities of the CPR Coach and how implementing this in your facility may lead to improved compliance with AHA CPR guidelines.