Knowledge and skills on cardiopulmonary resuscitation among nursing officers at Teaching Hospital Batticaloa

Abstract

Cardiac arrest is the cessation of normal circulation of blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively. And it is the leading cause for deaths in developing and developed countries. So cardiopulmonary resuscitation is considered a core emergency procedure which all health care professionals must be proficient. The purpose of this study is to determine the knowledge and skills regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation among nursing officers at Teaching Hospital Batticoloa.Our study is a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted to determine the knowledge and skills regarding CPR among nursing officers who are working at general medical wards, general surgical wards, special units (ETU, CCU, ICU) at Teaching Hospital Batticoloa. Complete enumeration was use to recruit participants. After obtaining informed consent, data were collected through self- administered questionnaire. Statistical package of social sciences version 25 was used to analyzing of data for descriptive statistics and chi-square. Among total 170 respondents, majority of nursing officers had moderate level of knowledge and skills (62.4%) on cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Only 5.9% of respondents had good level of knowledge compare with others. In addition, there was no significant association between gender and level of knowledge and skills on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (p = 0.685) and between education level and level of knowledge and skills on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (p = 0.65). However there was a significant association between departments (general wards and special units) and level of knowledge on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (p = 0.012) and between nursing grades and level of knowledge and skills on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (p = 0.01). Few respondents (22.9%) were aware about accurate way of identification of cardiac arrest patient. As well as reduced number of study participants (38.23%) were only known ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation as shockable rhythms. Out of 170 participants (5.88%) study participants were known about accurate way of adrenalin administration. And also (5.29%) of nursing officers were aware of accurate way of administering of vasopressin. However (2.35%) like less number of nursing officers were agreed with vasopressor, anticholinergic, antiarrhythmic as relevant drug groups that we can use for cardiac arrest management. The findings reveal that more than half of respondents had moderate level of knowledge and skills on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). This suggest a need for more educational intervention.