RQI Basic Life Support (BLS) Provider Practice Test

Maximizing chest compression fraction means keeping compressions going as much as possible and minimizing the time you pause. Blood flow during CPR depends on continuous chest compressions, so the best way to boost survival chances is to limit interruptions for ventilations or rhythm checks. While some pauses are necessary for defibrillation and breaths, you reduce their impact by coordinating the team, precharging the defibrillator during compressions, and resuming compressions immediately after any shock or analysis. Increasing ventilation rate would add pauses and disrupt flow, pausing for repeated AED analyses or stopping during analysis would drastically cut the time compressions are delivered. Therefore, the action that best improves CCF is limiting pauses in compressions.