Comparing student nurse knowledge and performance of basic life support algorithm actions: An observational post-retention test design study

Abstract

This study aims to identify which basic life support skills of student nurses deteriorate in a period of four months. Secondly, it investigates the link between a specific cognitive skill and its corresponding motor skill in BLS. The population for this study consisted of 169 general nursing students within the first year cohort of a three-year undergraduate nursing education program. Following a BLS course, a multiple-choice questionnaire and a BLS performance test on a manikin was administered two weeks (post) and four months (retention) after the course. Seven BLS subcomponents were compared. In both the post and retention test, knowledge was better than the corresponding motor skill for five of the seven subcomponents. Two weeks after training, more than 50% of the students failed to perform ‘time to check respiration’, ‘ventilation volume’, ‘compression depth’ and ‘compression frequency’ correctly. Four months after training, significantly more students reached a correct ‘ventilation volume’ but performed it incorrectly. Nurse educators are recommended to spend more time on hands-on skills practice than on theory. Special attention should be given to the performance of a correct ventilation technique, a sufficiently deep chest compression and a correct compression frequency.