An expert consensus-based checklist for quality appraisal of educational resources on adult Basic Life Support: a Delphi study.

OBJECTIVE: Considering the lack of a unified tool for appraisal of quality of educational resources on lay rescuer adult Basic Life Support (BLS), this study aimed to develop corresponding evaluation checklist based on international expert consensus.

METHODS: In a two-round Delphi study, participating experts completed questionnaires to rate each item of the pre-developed 72-item checklist indicating a level of agreement that an item should be utilized for evaluating conformance of an adult BLS educational resource with resuscitation guidelines. Consensus for item inclusion was defined as the rating of ≥7 points received from ≥75% of experts. Experts were encouraged to add anonymous suggestions for modifying or adding new items.

RESULTS: Of the 46 participants, 42 (91.3%) completed the first round (representatives of 25 countries with a median of 16 years of professional experience in resuscitation) and 40 (87.0%) completed the second round. Thirteen of 72 baseline items were excluded, 55 were included unchanged, four were modified. Besides, four new items were added. The final checklist comprises 63 items under the subsections "Safety" (1 item), "Recognition" (9), "Call for help" (4), "Chest compressions" (12), "Rescue breathing" (12), "Defibrillation" (9), "Continuation of CPR" (2), "Choking" (10) and "Miscellaneous" (4).

CONCLUSIONS: The produced checklist represents the ready-to-use expert consensus-based tool for appraisal of quality of educational content on lay rescuer adult BLS. The checklist is suggested for the content developers to ensure compliance of educational resources with current resuscitation knowledge, and may serve as a constituent element of a prospective standardized international framework for quality assurance in resuscitation education.