Background:
Empathy and mental resilience are basic skills that a trained and certified resuscitator should possess in order to be more efficient and adoptive to stressful conditions.

Aim:
We aimed at evaluating changes in empathy and mental resilience levels among health professionals after the completion of a certified seminar for resuscitation trainers in Greece (Generic Instructor Course- GIC- of the European Resuscitation Council-ERC). We present preliminary results of the study.

Methods:
This was an observational study. Study subjects were certified resuscitators who had completed different life support seminars, and who were trained and certified to become resuscitation seminar trainers. All candidates completed the GIC in Greece as per the ERC guidelines. GIC is a 2-day seminar (at least 14 hours) comprised by a theoretical and practical part. Evaluation of empathy and mental resilience was performed prior to the course, right after the completion of the course and on months 1 and 3 after the completion of the course. The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) and the Connor and Davidson (CD) questionnaires were used for the evaluation of the candidates.

Results:
The sample consisted of 66 participants, 37.9% were males and 62.1% females. Participants showed statistically higher empathy levels after the seminar completion compared to the levels before the seminar, according to TEQ [mean value ± standard deviation (SD); 50.77 ± 5.28 versus 51.73 ± 5.16 respectively; p = 0.014]. Resilience (CD-RISC questionnaire) did not reveal any statistical difference before and after the seminar [mean value ± SD: 67.32 ± 8.73 and 68.89 ± 8.71 respectively; p = 0.057]. For both variables (empathy and resilience), gender did not have any interaction in differences (p = 0.799 and p = 0.779 respectively). Educational level (bachelor degree vs. master/PhD) did not show any effect on both empathy and resilience levels (p = 0.279 and p = 0.618 respectively).

Conclusion/summary:
These preliminary results reveal that participation in GIC to become a resuscitation trainer improves the empathy levels of the candidates although there is no effect on mental resilience. We are in the process of evaluating mid-term outcomes, within 3 months from the seminar completion. Subgroup analysis did not reveal any effect of major prognostic factors.