This year marks the first year when the Malta Resuscitation Council together with the European resuscitation council collaborated with the University of Malta and organised a registered Basic Life Support course for all the 4th year students at the Medical School of Malta.
The courses were held in Medical School at Mater Dei Hospital. 135 students attended the courses held over 4 weeks during the month of March on Saturdays morning and afternoon. The basic life support course is a 5-hour course that includes identifying cardiac arrest, providing good quality chest compressions, mouth-to-mouth respiration, and management of chocking, recovery position whilst highlighting the importance of contacting the emergency services early.
This knowledge is vital for medical students who will be first responders providing resuscitation to patients in daily life as well as in hospital once they graduate. There is a cardiac arrest every 45 seconds in Europe. Good bystander CPR is what saves lives of victims of out of hospital cardiac arrest.
All the students showed great enthusiasm and excellent skills throughout the course and we congratulate them on their success as basic life support providers. We hope that a number of these young future medics will be joining the ranks of the MRC as instructors in the future.
University of Malta 4th year medical students
Basic life support course participants