Basic life support knowledge of undergraduate nursing and chiropractic students

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Objective: The aim of this study was to examine retention of CPR/BLS knowledge of third year nursing and fourth year chiropractic students following instruction and assessment of CPR/BLS skills and knowledge as part of their undergraduate degree program. Design: Non‑experimental exploratory survey to determine perceived ability and knowledge of CPR/BLS following completion of CPR/BLS instruction. Setting: University Health Sciences School. Subjects: 87 third year undergraduate nursing and 43 fourth year undergraduate chiropractic students at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Main outcome measure: The level of knowledge of CPR/BLS was assessed via the number of correct responses to questions regarding CPR/BLS. A visual analogue scale was used for the students to score their self rated perceived knowledge and skill. Results: The majority of students (78%) felt they were well prepared to perform CPR/BLS, however there were deficiencies in both groups with regards to knowledge of current guidelines. Chiropractic students were less likely to identify the correct compression rate compared to the nursing group (Spearman’s rho 0.669, p‑.001) with 95% of the chiropractic students not able to identify the correct rate. Thirty four percent of the students were unable to identify the correct ventilation compression ratio with nursing students again more likely to respond correctly (Spearman’s rho 0.508, p‑.001). Nursing students scored themselves highly for self rated knowledge and ability to perform CPR. Chiropractic students tended to score themselves at a lower rating in these areas than the nursing students; however the differences were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Although students from both disciplines had significant gaps in knowledge of CPR/BLS nursing students outperformed chiropractic students in all aspects of CPR/BLS knowledge. Despite the knowledge gap students from both disciplines were confident in their self-assessed ability to perform and assess the need for CPL/BLS.