Abstract:
Basic life support (BLS) is an essential clinical skill that needs to be mastered by graduating medical
officers as potential first responders in clinical settings. Inadequate resuscitation skills of healthcare
professionals in BLS have been identified as contributing to poor prognosis in cardiac arrest victims.
Thus, BLS training has been incorporated into undergraduate medical curricula using various
instructional methods to equip their graduates with BLS skills. Despite such training, medical students
and junior doctors were found to be under-competent in delivering BLS primarily due to different
methods of instruction utilised in BLS training as opposed to simulation-based training, which
is identified as the gold standard in BLS training. It is recommended that simulation-based BLS
training be conducted, giving more weight to the skill component, in small groups of 3–10 students,
complemented by yearly refresher courses and just-in-time training. This article aims to build
awareness and inform medical teachers and programme directors on the current best practices of BLS
training in undergraduate medical education.
