Resuscitation (2007) 72, 451—457 TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL PAPER The immediate life support (ILS) course — The Italian experience  Andrea Scapigliati a,* , Tommaso Sanna a , Roberto Zamparelli a , Claudio Sandroni b , Christian Colizzi a , Peter Fenici b , Gabriella Arlotta a , Carmen Nuzzo a , Carmela Bonarrigo b , Fulvio Bellocci a , Rocco Schiavello a , Gianfederico Possati a a Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Largo A. Gemelli 8, 00168 Rome, Italy b Department of Emergency Medicine, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Largo A. Gemelli 8, 00168 Rome, Italy Received 25 May 2006; received in revised form 20 July 2006; accepted 27 July 2006 KEYWORDS Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); Education; In-hospital CPR; Immediate life support (ILS); Training; Resuscitation Summary Aim of the study: The 1-day immediate life support course (ILS) was started in the United Kingdom and adopted by the ERC to train healthcare professionals who attend cardiac arrests only occasionally. Currently, there are no reports about the ILS course from outside the UK. In this paper we describe our initial Italian experience of teaching ILS to nurses. We have also measured the impact that ILS has on the resuscitation knowledge of nurses. Methods: The ILS course materials were translated by Italian ALS instructors who had observed the ILS course previously in the UK. From March to November 2005 nurses from a single hospital department attended the Italian ILS course. Candidate feedback was collected using an evaluation form. The change in knowledge of can- didates was measured using a pre- and post-course test. Variables associated with candidate performance on course papers were investigated using multivariate linear regression analysis. Results: A total of 119 nurses attended nine ILS courses. All candidates completed the course successfully and gave high evaluation scores. ILS produced a significant increase from pre- to post-course score (10.15 ± 2.75 to 13.19 ± 2.53, p < 0.001). The pre-course score was higher for nurses working in ICU compared with those coming from non-intensive wards, but this difference disappeared in the post-course evaluation (13.89 ± 2.18 versus 12.79 ± 2.65, p = ns).  A Spanish translated version of the summary of this article appears as appendix in the final online version at 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2006.07.024 ∗ Corresponding author at: Institute of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, L.go A. Gemelli 8, 00168 Rome, Italy. Tel.: +39 0630154507. E-mail address: a.scapigliati@rm.unicatt.it (A. Scapigliati). 0300-9572/$ — see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2006.07.024