Cardiac arrest rhythm recognition improved significantly among newly hired emergency medical service (EMS) providers, with team-based learning and individual learning producing equivalent short-term gains in a randomised trial.
The study evaluated 387 newly hired EMS personnel who participated in a 90-minute educational programme focused on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest rhythm recognition.
Participants were assigned by training session to either a team-based learning format or an individual learning format.
Both groups received identical lectures, cardiac rhythm interpretation cases, and feedback.
Across the cohort, the mean out-of-hospital cardiac arrest knowledge score increased from 6.72 to 8.04 on a nine-point scale, representing an average improvement of 1.32 points.
Knowledge gains were similar in both groups, with improvements of 1.39 points in the individual learning cohort and 1.26 points in the team-based learning group.
Equivalent Learning Gains Across Formats
Researchers also conducted cluster adjusted analyses to account for session level randomisation.
These analyses consistently supported the primary finding that team-based learning and individual learning were equivalent for improving cardiac arrest rhythm recognition.
Subgroup analyses showed that paramedics achieved higher post-training scores than nurses, while duration of clinical experience was not associated with outcomes.
Improvements were observed for both shockable and non-shockable rhythm recognition, with no meaningful differences between instructional formats.
Confidence and Follow Up Findings
Self-reported confidence in rhythm interpretation increased in both groups.
Mean confidence scores rose from 3.39 before training to 4.10 after training, with no significant difference between formats.
At 1 month, follow up data was recorded for 259 participants.
Knowledge gains appeared to be maintained among those who completed reassessment, with retained improvements of 0.90 points in the individual group and 0.83 points in the team-based learning group.
However, researchers noted substantially different follow-up completion rates between groups, which may have introduced bias and limits interpretation of retention results.
The authors concluded that a feedback-oriented curriculum may effectively improve cardiac arrest rhythm recognition among newly hired EMS providers.
For EMS educators and training leaders, the results suggest that standardised content and immediate feedback may be the key drivers of short-term rhythm recognition performance, regardless of learning format.
Reference
Cho & Lee. Team-based versus individual learning for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest rhythm recognition in newly hired emergency medical service providers: cluster-randomized equivalence trial. Sci Rep. 2026;DOI:10.1038/s41598-026-61027-2
Featured image: Chalabala on Adobe Stock
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