Background: Scientific evidence is scarce in relation to the effectiveness of different methods of teaching automated external defibrillator (AED) use to laypeople. A reference course is needed in order to test new courses or methods against a comparative standard.
Objective: To propose a reference AED provider course that can be used as a comparator when testing new courses or teaching methods.
Methods: All national resuscitation councils that are represented in the European Resuscitation Council were sent a questionnaire about the AED provider courses run by them or under their auspices.
Results: Sixteen national resuscitation councils responded to the enquiry. Apart from the individual course timetables, there was remarkable consistency amongst the European countries as regards organisation, structure, content and methods.
Conclusions: A reference AED provider course for laypeople, based on a synthesis of existing European courses, is suggested as a tool for research. Prior completion of a basic life support provider course is mandatory. Course duration is 2 h 45 min (excluding breaks), with 1 h 40 min practice time for the participants, 25 min for theory, 20 min for practical demonstrations by the instructor and 20 min for introduction, discussion and closure. A manual is distributed at the start of the course. The ratio of instructors to participants is one to six. Lectures are interactive between the instructor and the class. AED use is practised in groups of six participants. Participants prove their competency by means of a formal test that simulates a cardiac arrest scenario. Using this course as a comparator during research into the methodology of AED teaching would provide a reference against which other courses could be tested.