Assess the Knowledge and Practice among Public Nurses’ Regarding Basic Life Support in Pakistan

Abstract

Background: Basic life support involves identifying sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), rapidly defibrillating

the patient with an automated external defibrillator (AED), initiating the emergency response system, and

performing early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Research objective: To assess the knowledge

and practice among public Nurses’ regarding basic life support. Methodology: a quantitative cross[1]sectional study was conducted from four different public hospitals. Study Setting: Data was collected

from different public hospitals, including RBUT Civil Hospital Shikarpur, Civil Hospital Sukkur, Civil

Hospital Jacobabad, and GIMS Hospital Gambat. Sample size: A sample size of 110 was obtained

through the total population where the total population was 153 after putting the 95% confidence interval

and 5% margin error the calculation sample turn out to be 110. Sampling technique: Convenient

sampling method was used for data collection. Research Tool: A questionnaire was consisting of two

following sections: Section A: demographic of participants include, Age, Designation, Area of work &

clinical experience. Section B: This section is consisting 25 items designed to evaluate the participants’

knowledge & Practice. Data analysis: The quantitative data were analyzed through the latest version of

SPSS V29, with descriptive statistical Analysis-Frequency and Percentage, Mean & Standard Deviation.

Result: Table 01: indicates that the sample is composed of 68% male and 42% female. The age

distribution of participants is shown in table 02: the majority, 56% is between the ages of 30-40 years.

Table 06: This table shows that while people have a good understanding of BLS principal’s there are still

gaps in their knowledge and practice. For instance, people were able to answer correctly about 80% of the

time for the first 5 questions, with means score of 0.80 and a standard deviation of 0.42, However this

percentage dropped to 55% for questions related to Automated External Defibrillator (AED) usage, with

mean score of 0.55 and standard deviation of 0.50. Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of

basic life support (BLS) training for healthcare professionals, exceptionally nurses. The result shows that

while participants had some knowledge of BLS, there were gaps in their knowledge and practice. This is

a concern because BLS is a critical skill that can save lives. To tackle this issue, healthcare organizations

should prioritize BLS training for their staff. This can include regular workshops, training sessions, and

practice exercises. By investing in BLS training, healthcare organization can improve patient outcomes,

reduce clinical mishaps, and enhance the overall quality of care. Ultimately, this can lead to better patient

care and more lives saved.