DALLAS, April 26, 2022 – A new suite of telecommunicator CPR (T-CPR) training and education programs designed for the first first responders in a sudden cardiac arrest emergency is now available from RQI Partners, the partnership between the American Heart Association^® (Association) and Laerdal Medical (Laerdal), to help improve cardiac arrest survival rates in communities nationwide. RQI^® Telecommunicator CPR (RQI T-CPR) has expanded to three program and learning tiers, marking a first-ever milestone, and offering emergency communications centers and telecommunicators access to more tailored and cost-effective solutions.

RQI T-CPR is available in three tiers — Essentials, Challenger and Responder — and rooted in the Resuscitation Quality Improvement^® (RQI) program, which is co-developed by the Association, the world’s leading voluntary organization dedicated to a world of longer, healthier lives, and Laerdal, one of the world leaders in medical simulation and resuscitation training. The legacy RQI T-CPR program, RQI Telecommunicator, was introduced in 2019.

Enhancements to course content and learning levels place public safety telecommunicators on a path to achieve mastery, verified competence and confidence — the hallmarks of the RQI program — in high-quality telephone CPR delivery. Bringing greater effectiveness and efficiency to the learning experience, telecommunicators can now enroll in entry, intermediate and advanced instruction, and upon course completion, will receive an American Heart Association T-CPR course certificate of completion or e-credential:

• RQI T-CPR Essentials lays the groundwork for T-CPR education, providing telecommunicators with a foundation in the science of resuscitation and T-CPR.
• In RQI T-CPR Challenger’s intermediate level, telecommunicators begin by completing core elements in the Essentials tier. They will then be challenged quarterly to demonstrate knowledge retention through a series of cognitive assessment activities.
• RQI T-CPR Responder, advanced first responder-level training, is the most comprehensive tier. Aspects of Essentials and Challenger are combined with quarterly, scenario-based simulation skills sessions, which are facilitated by RQI quality managers.

The statistics on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest occurrences and survival bring urgency to optimizing every link in the chain of survival and preparing providers to deliver peak, high-quality performance.

More than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the U.S. annually. About 90% of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest die. And about 46% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander.

“Bystander CPR is a key component in reducing death from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, but poor-quality CPR is devastating to patient survival,” said Michael Kurz, M.D., professor of the departments of emergency medicine and surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and chair of the American Heart Association T-CPR Task Force. “The RQI T-CPR program will help give dispatchers and 9-1-1 operators the skills and confidence needed to present high-quality telephone CPR instructions to bystanders, which in turn should boost overall patient outcomes and survival.”

Based on the nationally recognized American Heart Association Guidelines for CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care, the official resuscitation guidelines used by all other training providers nationwide, RQI T-CPR holds the distinction as the only T-CPR program that has been vetted by Association scientists and educators. Additionally, the program meets NHTSA CPR LifeLinks’ requirements as well as state-mandated T-CPR education.

The RQI T-CPR Responder tier is also recognized by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED) as the preferred solution to build and increase competence in rapid recognition of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and initiation of high-quality telephone CPR instructions. The IAED has participated in a comprehensive review of this course level, including collaborating in the development of exclusive content for emergency communications centers that use Priority Dispatch solutions.

In addition to three new learning levels, beginning in September, RQI T-CPR will boast the True Adaptive™ learning design, which leverages artificial intelligence. Courses will afford customized, personalized and highly efficient instruction tailored to and driven by individual needs, knowledge levels, actions and performance.

“The true first responders are at different stages on their path to high-quality telephone CPR and it is critical that we recognize, accommodate and adjust to the varying degrees of competence,” said Julie Buckingham, RQI Partners’ RQI T-CPR program director. “We understand that one size does not fit all. The program’s three-tier design coupled with the True Adaptive learning experience will maximize each provider’s learning potential and increase their knowledge retention. We have reimagined T-CPR training and education to empower our nation’s telecommunicators to help save more lives.”

For additional information and to learn more about the RQI T-CPR program, visit the RQI Partners’ website.