ASSESSMENT OF NURSES’ KNOWLEDGE RELATED TO CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION, A DESCRIPTIVE CROSS SECTIONAL SURVEY

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is considered a core emergency skill in which all health care professionals especially nurses must be proficient. Training of nurses has an impact on the efficiency and outcome of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and thus, assessment of CPR knowledge among nurses is very important to improve training program.

Methods: The questionnaire comprised of three parts about CPR knowledge: the first dealing with general questions to understand the importance of CPR in clinical practice; the second comprising the main goal and accuracy of CPR intervention; and the last consisting of questions targeting the indications, methods, and effectiveness of CPR. Descriptive statistics and multiple response analyses were done by IBM SPSS version 20.

Results: The staff nurses had moderate knowledge about the importance of CPR in clinical practice, stood poor in knowing main goal and accuracy of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and had moderate knowledge related to its indications and effectiveness. Only (86.6%) were completely aware about the universal compression ventilation ratio, 79.6% were aware of the current compression depth. In addition, 63.2% of participants have only indicated the order of CPR being CAB (compression, airway, and breathing).

Conclusion: Knowledge of CPR is poor among the nurses. However, skills of CPR have to be improved by current training programs at regular intervals. Their knowledge and practical approach have to be updated with the current guidelines in CPR.