Introduction: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is the immediate response to a person who is suffering cardiopulmonary arrest and the survival rate will be depending on the competency and efficiency of the provider. Studies from different institutions revealed that after the initial CPR training, the CPR skills deteriorate its quality overtime most specially if not being in practice but the knowledge retained and even give higher score compared to the initial result. There is a need of continuous CPR training by utilizing high fidelity manikins to simulate real scenario in the clinical settings to enhance health care practitioner skills in performing CPR.

Objectives: This study evaluates the retention of (CPR) knowledge and skills among the nursing internship students utilizing the Saudi Heart Association (SHA)-BLS guidelines.

Methods: One group Posttest time-series design was adopted to investigate internship students’ retention of knowledge and skills immediate after CPR training and 9 months post CPR training (internship period). Twenty-six (26) participants were given lecture and demonstration of CPR during the course. The first post test was conducted after 2 weeks of CPR training. The students were assessed for the knowledge and skills. The retest was conducted among the students 9 months after the CPR training during their internship period. The difference between the retention of knowledge and skills immediate and 9 months after the training were identified and computed by using statistics.

Results: The results of this study show that the knowledge and skills were deteriorated over time. The mean knowledge of the immediate pretest was 17.15 with SD of 2.5 and it was decreased to 13.23 SD - 4.20. Similar result in skills in performing CPR with a Mean score of 3.78 (SD- 0.18) for the first test and 2nd test shows the mean score of 2.82 (SD- 0.28). The efficiency of the chest compression skills were deteriorated over time more than other items in the checklist. Declining the quality of chest compressions would give a great effect to the quality of CPR, hence, could be a reason of poor survival rate of patient under emergency situation. The study also shows a significant association between the skills on CPR and participation in training programs during internship period (χ2 - 3.869, p- 0. 0.0492). This only means that there is a need of constant and continuous programs such as seminar, workshop, group discussion, simulation regarding BLS courses to improve their CPR knowledge and skills. Positive correlation between the knowledge and skills of CPR in both tests were identified, immediate test after training (0.32) and re test during internship (0.16).

Conclusion: Nursing interns’ knowledge and skills in CPR deteriorated over time. Participation in training session or any related activities in CPR has a positive significant effect in their knowledge and skills compared to those who did not have any training session. Therefore, this study strongly suggests that the necessity of periodical training courses to strengthen the competency of the nursing interns and effectively react to emergency situations. It is also recommended to utilize the high-fidelity manikin to mimic the real emergency scenario most specially in applying CPR. This will further enhance not only their knowledge and skills but also their confidence level in handling emergency scenarios.

Keywords: Retention of CPR Skills; Knowledge and Skills on CPR Overtime

References

1. https://cpr.heart.org/AHAECC/CPRAndECC/General/UCM_477263_Cardiac-Arrest-Statistics.jsp, (2016).
2. Aldawood A. Polskie Archiwum Medycyny Wewnetrznej 117 (2007): 11-12. 
3. Smith KK., et al. “Evaluation of staff’s retention of ACLS and BLS skills, Journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resuscitation Resuscitation (2008) 78 (2008): 59-65. 
4. Travis Behrend BS., et al. “Retention of cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills in medical students utilizing a high-fidelity patient simulator”. Medical Student Research Journal 01 (2011): 01. 
5. Dal U and Sarpkaya D. “Knowledge and psychomotor skills of nursing students in North Cyprus in the area of cardiopulmonary resuscitation”. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences 29.4 (2013): 966-971.
6. Nicol P., et al. “Retention into internship of resuscitation skills learned in a medical student resuscitation program incorporating an immediate life support course”. Resuscitation 82 (2011): 45-50. 
7. American Heart Association (2016). 
8. Aqel AA and Ahmad MM. “High-Fidelity Simulation Effects on CPR Knowledge, Skills, Acquisition and Retention in Nursing Students”. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing (2014): 1-7.
9. Oermann M., et al. “Effects of monthly practice on nursing students' CPR psychomotor skill performance”. Resuscitation 82.4 (2011): 447-453. 
10. Rajeswaran L and Ehlers V.  “Cardiopulmonary resuscitation knowledge and skills of registered nurses in Botswana”. Curationis 37 (2014).
11. Ackermann A. Acquisition and Retention of CPR Knowledge and Skills for Junior Level Baccalaureate Nursing Students (2007).
12. Lorrel E Brown., et al. “Retention of CPR Skills in High School Students Following a 45-minute Instructor-led Course with Hands-on Practice: A Cross-sectional Analysis, Circulation (AHA). 134 (2016): A14348. 

Citation

Citation: Mathar Mohideen and Jay Ablao. “Utilizing Saudi Heart Association Basic Life Support Guidelines in Evaluating the Retention of Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation Knowledge and Skills Among Nursing Students". Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 4.2 (2020): 42-46.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Mathar Mohideen and Jay Ablao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.