Assessment of nurses' cardiopulmonary resuscitation knowledge and skills within three district hospitals in Botswana.

Lakshmi Rajeswaran,Stoffel Moeng,Billy M Tsima,Megan Cox

doi:10.4102/phcfm.v10i1.1633

Abstract

BackgroundNurses are usually the first to identify the need for and initiate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on patients with cardiopulmonary arrest in the hospital setting. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation has been shown to reduce in-hospital deaths when received from adequately trained health care professionals.AimWe aimed to investigate nurses’ retention of CPR knowledge and skills at district hospitals in Botswana.MethodsA quantitative, quasi-experimental study was conducted at three hospitals in Botswana. A pre-test, intervention, post-test, and a re-test after 6 months were utilised to determine the retention of CPR knowledge and skills. Non-probability, convenience sampling technique was used to select 154 nurses.The sequences of the test were consistent with the American Heart Association’s 2010 basic life support (BLS) guidelines for health care providers. Data were analysed to compare performance over time.ResultsThis study showed markedly deficient CPR knowledge and skills among registered nurses in the three district hospitals. The pre-test knowledge average score (48%) indicated that the nurses did not know the majority of the BLS steps. Only 85 nurses participated in the re-evaluation test at 6 months. While a 26.4% increase was observed in the immediate post-test score compared with the pre-test, the performance of the available participants dropped by 14.5% in the re-test 6 months after the post-test.ConclusionPoor CPR knowledge and skills among registered nurses may impede the survival and management of cardiac arrest victims. Employers and nursing professional bodies in Botswana should encourage and monitor regular CPR refresher courses.

Highlights

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a well-recognised medical procedure in which chest compressions and artificial ventilation are provided to maintain adequate blood flow to the brain and other vital organs.[1]
Previous in-hospital experience of CPR training was evenly split with 52% reporting no prior formal CPR training and 48% reporting some previous CPR or basic life support (BLS) training
The pre-test knowledge score (48.2%) of 154 registered nurses indicated that they did not know the correct compression ventilation ratio, compression rate, updated American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines, BLS steps, chain of survival and the indication for using an automated external defibrillator (AED) and providing ventilation using the bag-valve mask. These are the critical aspects of CPR and incorrect steps in initiating CPR reduce the chances of survival after a cardiac arrest.[10,11]

Summary

Introduction

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a well-recognised medical procedure in which chest compressions and artificial ventilation are provided to maintain adequate blood flow to the brain and other vital organs.[1] Cardiopulmonary resuscitation has been shown to reduce in-hospital cardiac death and related fatalities when patients are managed by adequately trained health care professionals.[2] The American Heart Association (AHA) is the leading authority on resuscitation science. Nurses are usually the first to identify the need for and initiate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on patients with cardiopulmonary arrest in the hospital setting. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation has been shown to reduce in-hospital deaths when received from adequately trained health care professionals

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