Teaching Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation to School Children

Two medical students will present their experience of participating in a Special Study Module (SSM) in Community Engagement- teaching national school children how to perform Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). The presentation will be in two parts: Part 1: Third Year Student Andrew Carroll will present the student motivations, expectations, learning objectives and techniques used to provide this community learning initiative. Part 2: Second Year student Craig Mac Liathain will present his experience of teaching the national school children. A unique feature of the SSM is that the medical students taught CPR through Irish in the Irish speaking national schools. A video log of the teaching will be shown. Reflections from the medical students involved, our community partners, the national school children and their principal will be shared. Details of the assessment of the SSM will be presented. SSM Overview: The SSM is now in place for three years. It runs over a ten week period. Over the first four weeks the students are introduced to the concept of community learning and civic engagement through an interactive workshop, learn the skill of CPR and learn how to teach a clinical skill. Students then have to liaise with local national schools, organise the teaching, draw up a lesson plan, and resource material for the teaching day in the schools. The teaching is then delivered to the local schools. Feedback from teachers and national school children is gathered, a group poster or video log describing the endeavour is produced and a reflective diary of the value of the experience to student's development as a doctor is written. The CPR teaching in the national schools is based on the ABC for Life Programme, Queen's University Belfast. The authors would like to acknowledge Dr Mac Closkey for sharing this material.