Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health

Introduction: A barrier to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training in low-income countries is limitedresources. Our goal was to build a CPR training model of simple design that would provide a goodfeedback system.

Methods: We developed a low-cost, Basic Life Support training manikin made entirely of natural rubber.Our in-house manikin provides feedback when performing correct chest compression and rescuebreathing. The properties of the manikin were tested using simulated chest compression in a laboratoryand compared with a commercial manikin. Forty healthy nurse volunteers with CPR experienceperformed CPR in both types of manikins and responded to questionnaires.

Results: A tensile test in a laboratory demonstrated that both types of manikins had acceptable rangesof properties for real-situation CPR in cardiac arrest patients. There were no differences in aestheticproperties, and the manikins felt to the volunteers like a real patient when they were performing chestcompression. The feedback response was clear when chest compressions and rescue breathing wereperformed correctly, and the overall satisfaction with the manikin was good. In addition, the mean scoresin terms of the manikin feeling like a real patient when performing rescue breathing and the positivefeedback from the rubber manikin were statistically higher than those for the commercial manikin(p=0.001 vs. p=0.023).

Conclusion: The in-house developed CPR manikin employing real-time feedback by simple mechanicsis effective compared with a commercial manikin. The advantage of our manikin is that it is easy to buildand costs substantially less than a commercial manikin. The use of an in-house developed manikin couldmake effective CPR training more available in limited-resource areas.