A study assessing the impact of different teaching modalities for pharmacy students in a Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) course

The current study aims to assess the effectiveness of different teaching methods adoptedfor the practical session of Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). CPR training is one of thecompulsory modules of the Public Health Pharmacy (PHP) course at Universiti Sains Malaysia.CPR training comprises of 10% of total marks of the PHP course. To test the effectiveness ofthe different teaching strategies, three groups were defined using a two-stage cohort distribution––i.e. based on grade point average (GPA) and different teaching modalities. Group One wasinstructed using images and PowerPoint lecture slides. Group Two was instructed using videosand PowerPoint lecture slides. Group Three was instructed using PowerPoint slides with whiteboards and videos. Students in Group Three were not provided with a hard/soft copy of the PowerPointslides and were encouraged to write down all the information on their personal notebooks.A 20-item questionnaire was used to assess the students’ understanding toward the CPR session.Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science Students, SPSS version 13®. Based on the response attained, the comparison of the final score among the groups was undertaken using one way ANOVA. Twenty-seven students have participated in this study. Final evaluation using the questionnaire revealed that student’s in Group Three had a better understanding of CPR (18.1± 1.5, p 0.001) than the other two. Students’ note taking during the lecture and use of traditional chalkboard teaching were found significant to improve the students’ understanding and learning in the CPR session.