Objective: To assess pharmacy students' ability to retain advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) knowledge and skills within 120 days of previous high-fidelity mannequin simulation training.
Design: Students were randomly assigned to rapid response teams of 5-6. Skills in ACLS and mannequin survival were compared between teams some members of which had simulation training 120 days earlier and teams who had not had previous training.
Assessment: A checklist was used to record and assess performance in the simulations. Teams with previous simulation training (n=10) demonstrated numerical superiority to teams without previous training (n=12) for 6 out of 8 (75%) ACLS skills observed, including time calculating accurate vasopressor infusion rate (83 sec vs 113 sec; p=0.01). Mannequin survival was 37% higher for teams who had previous simulation training, but this result was not significant (70% vs 33%; p=0.20).
Conclusion: Teams with students who had previous simulation training demonstrated numerical superiority in ACLS knowledge and skill retention within 120 days of previous training compared to those who had no previous training. Future studies are needed to add to the current evidence of pharmacy students' and practicing pharmacists' ACLS knowledge and skill retention.
Keywords: advanced cardiac life support; instructional design; retention; simulation.