Basic life support skill acquisition and retention in student nurses undertaking a pre-registration diploma in higher education/nursing course

Many studies have investigated the abilityof health care professionals to provide competent Basic Life Support (BLS) and all results indicate that the majority of staff fail to demonstrate competence. However, it has not yet been shown whether this poor performance is due to deterioration of skill or the non acquisition of the skill during BLS training. This study seeks to identify aspects of BLS acquisition and retention by student nurses during their three years of training. The two issues under consideration are the effect of teacher-student ratio and the effect of regular practice on BLS performance. This paper provides a review of the methodology and the initial findings.