25 May 2005
New Zealand Resuscitation Council Introduces Initiatives to Enhance the Quality of Emergency Care Training in the
Community.
Two new initiatives have been announced this week by the Education Board of the New Zealand Resuscitation Council
(NZRC). These are intended to enhance the quality of emergency care training delivered to laypeople and workplace first
aiders.
The Education Board of the NZRC is:
Introducing the option of a new annual certification for emergency care instructors in the community. This will address
the desirability for a nationally recognized certificate of competence for emergency care instructors.
Extending its national program of health professional emergency care training courses into the lay community. This will
allow trained instructors to deliver nationally standardized, integrated training courses across the broad range of lay
and health professional groups It will enable lay people to be awarded with the NZRC “Certificate of Resuscitation and
Emergency Care” at each of these levels.
Emergency Care Instructor Certificate NZRC General Manager Pip Mason said the new "Emergency Care Instructor Certificate
(ECI) will formally assess the knowledge, skills and teaching ability of lay, and workplace instructors. Certified
instructors will be entitled to use the term "NZRC Approved, New Zealand Emergency Care Instructor" or the letters
ANZECI. The annual certification will assist instructors in their professional development through credible, independent
assessment of their abilities. The certification will help reassure the end user, especially when considering one of the
less familiar emergency care providers, many of whom provide excellent training.”
A National Program for Emergency Care Training In 2002 the NZRC developed national courses used throughout New Zealand
hospitals for training health professional staff. The NZRC is now introducing similar courses to the lay community.
Known as “CORE”, these courses will provide a series of 7 graded courses from a school child (CORE 1), through to
doctors (CORE 7). For each of the 7 levels, course participants can be awarded the NZRC “Certificate of Resuscitation
and Emergency care” if successful in a formal assessment of skills and knowledge.
A CORE course can be delivered by any skilled instructor who has been trained in its delivery. The trained instructor
uses a specifically developed set of guideline texts, workbooks, audio-visual material and formal assessment tools to
deliver the program. This will allow any independent instructor to deliver a nationally standardized course of the
highest quality.
Dr Andy Swain from the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine believes the extension of CORE to the lay community is
timely. "Since its introduction, the higher level health professional courses have become the standard for basic
emergency care training of doctors, nurses, dentists and military personnel in New Zealand. It is therefore logical to
extend the program into the lay community".
Associate Professor Duncan Galletly, Chair of the NZRC Education Board said "the concept of a graded series of emergency
care courses for the entire New Zealand community is a novel and internationally important departure from the
traditional division between lay "first aiders" and health professionals.
The CORE series will provide seamless, standardized, high quality training through all levels of the community and
health professions. The concept of CORE as a complete national education framework reinforces the idea that every New
Zealander has an important role in helping those suffering life threatening illness and injury”.
Dr Richard Aickin of the Paediatric Society also supports the introduction of the new courses which “have a strong focus
on what actually works in resuscitation and education. A high standard of training in the community is imperative if we
are to have better survival rates for major illness and injury, especially for children.”
Professor Michael Ardagh of the Christchurch Department of Emergency Medicine noted that. “The work of the NZRC has been
a particularly valuable contribution to the recent history of resuscitation in New Zealand. Our research indicates that
the introduction of the NZRC CORE educational material into hospitals has improved the life saving knowledge of junior
doctors”.
Wellington general practitioner Dr Alana Wilson also welcomes the new CORE courses. “They are designed to provide the
lay rescuer with the skills and knowledge to act immediately should an emergency arise.” She believes that “one person
in every household should be trained in emergency care. This would make things a whole lot easier for GP’s”.
In addition to the basic CORE series, specialist extension courses are currently being developed as add-ons to cater for
specific emergency care environments. It would also be feasible for a group of lay rescuers with specialist needs to
develop similar extensions to CORE at the lay rescuer levels.
The new CORE 3 courses are currently being piloted by New Zealand Red Cross, one of New Zealand’s largest providers of
emergency care education. Pip Mason said the feedback so far has been exceptionally good, reflecting both the course
content and the quality of the instructors involved.
ENDS