PHOENIX, AZ – Although popular with millennials and medical administrators, new research shows that online BLS/ACLS training is not effective at instilling the muscle-memory reflexes needed for emergency response skills.
“BLS and ACLS responses need to be unconscious and automatic to be effective,” according to LovesmesomeMOC Johnson, head of the internal medicine residency training program at Upstate Medical Center.
“Our residents arrive on the scene of a code reaching out for the mouse to start the compressions. Meanwhile the patient is just turning a deeper shade of blue. Virtual lives may have been saved online, but real life human codes just don’t work that way.”
Johnson’s article was published in the highly popular Medical Educator Quarterly, which has even more impact factor than the Anals of Internal Medicine. Medical Educator Quarterly is housed in the basement of the hospital library, according to the hospital executive secretary who also serves as the librarian.
Meyer Thompson, Vice President of Performance Measures and Executive Remuneration at Upstate Medical Center, disagrees. “Using these convenient online programs helps us meet Joint Commission (JC) guidelines for employee training at a much lower cost than before. Little or no lost productivity or disrupted schedules. That is what is most important in healthcare today.”
The Joint Commission spokesperson, Jobsecurity Dotcom, said, “Some of this new research is compelling. We will have to revisit this matter.”
The new online courses do make it convenient to login and check Facebook during compressions, which is a new hospital requirement at all codes now.
