In Response to the Letter to the Editor Submitted Titled "Lack of CPR Knowledge among Young Medical Doctors: A Worldwide Issue".

How to cite this article: Chandran KV, Abraham SV. In Response to the Letter to the Editor Submitted Titled "Lack of CPR Knowledge among Young Medical Doctors: A Worldwide Issue". Indian J Crit Care Med 2021;25(1):107.

Dear editor,

This letter is in response to the letter to the editor submitted titled “lack of CPR knowledge among young medical doctors: a worldwide issue.”

It is encouraging to observe that globally researchers are thinking in the same line as we are. It is also interesting to note that the results in our study are comparable to those by the European group.[1]

In the light of new discussions, I would like to highlight few points from our study[2]

As rightly pointed out in the letter, the study group consisted of a group of doctors who will be exiting the medical school and joining to work in the community within few weeks’ time. Most of them will enroll in some departments in the hospital like emergency medicine, general medicine, general surgery, ICU, and so on to work as junior doctors. They will be the most important bridge between the patient and treating physician once a patient visits a hospital. In such a scenario, the prompt recognition of prearrest/cardiac or respiratory arrest scenario and timely appropriate resuscitation is of paramount importance. So, it is the need of the hour that we recognize the importance of training this group in lifesaving skills.

As pointed out in our study, knowledge attrition is a major issue. Unless the group is constantly exposed to cardiac/respiratory arrest scenarios, there is a possibility that they forget the essential steps and necessary skill sets. This can be achieved by conducting frequent classes or simulation-based exercises on a regular basis to this group at the hospital level.[3]

Also most importantly, it is quite surprising that these skills are yet to be a part of regular medical syllabus. We feel that starting to train the medical students from their first year of medical school itself and then frequently conducting classes through the entire course will help improve the knowledge on basic life support (BLS) to a great extent.