Challenges and best practices of dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A scoping review protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Improved survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with good neurological outcome was observed in association with dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, increasing the number of bystander-initiated resuscitations and minimizing the no-flow time in the first minutes of cardiac arrest.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this scoping review is to map and summarise the existing literature on dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, focusing on reported experiences, challenges, and best practices, highlighting strategies that could improve the provision of cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructions to bystanders during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

INCLUSION CRITERIA: Studies related to dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, involving human subjects, with an English abstract. The concept of interest is focused on the methods of provision of dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation analysing specific experiences of implementation, challenges, and best practices, and can be generalized to any country; cultural factors, geographic features, and specific racial or gender-based differences will be analysed and discussed.

METHODS: Four databases (PubMed, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature, and the Cochrane Library) will be searched for studies published from 2018 to 2023. All study designs, including experimental and observational studies, will be assessed for inclusion. Titles and abstracts of identified citations will be screened for inclusion; subsequently, full texts of potentially relevant sources will be assessed for inclusion by two reviewers. Any disagreements between the reviewers will be resolved through discussion. Relevant grey literature (conference proceedings, government documents, and theses) will be analysed and included. Data will be extracted in a standardized form, following Joanna Briggs Institute recommendations. Results will be synthesized and reported using a narrative approach, categorising findings into themes related to the effectiveness of dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, challenges, and best practices.