[A survey of 3,303 6th-year medical students from 36 universities concerning knowledge of resuscitation--more than 80% of medical students can not perform standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation?].
Questionnaires on knowledge of resuscitation were distributed to 3,303 6th-year medical school students from 36 universities. The questionnaire included 13 questions based on the 1992 guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. From the 13 questions, each student was instructed to select 6 questions concerning assessment of consciousness level, method for confirming respiration, method for securing the airway, method for confirming circulation, pressure points for cardiac massage, and the ratio of respiration and cardiac massage. If all of these six questions could not be answered correctly, it was considered that the student was not able to perform resuscitation according to the guidelines. At least one incorrect answer was given to the six questions by 84% of students, indicating that most medical students are not able to actually perform standard resuscitation. Possible reasons for these results may be the lack of desire on the part of students to master resuscitation, confusion over new findings concerning resuscitation and guideline, insufficient understanding of the difference between the guidelines and new findings by educators, and restricted teaching time for resuscitation. Possible ways to improve the situation include efforts to make students more responsible to master resuscitation, efforts to enhance students' desire to learn, adoption of more practical education, inclusion of such questions in graduation examinations and the national examination for a medical license, adherence by educators to the guidelines, and efforts by educators to make a clear distinction between the guidelines and new findings. With new guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation due out in the year 2000, methods for teaching resuscitation should be reconsidered in order to ensure that all medical students can competently perform resuscitation.