Assessment of Current Status of Emergency and Intensive Care Unit Nurses Interms of Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation

Objective: This study was carried out to evaluate the current status of nurses in applying cardiopulmonary resuscitation for adult patients.

Method: This descriptive study was conducted between June and July 2017 at two training and research hospitals. The research population consists of 245 nurses working in emergency and intensive care clinics of training and research hospitals. The research sample consists of 204 nurses who agreed to participate in the study and were available. The research data were collected by a questionnaire containing personal information of the nurses and information about cardiopulmonary resuscitation prepared based on the 2015 American Health Association (AHA) guideline.

Results: It has been seen that the nurses who participated in the research and received cardiopulmonary resuscitation training had a higher level of knowledge than those who did not receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation training. Also the nurses who working in the emergency unit had a higher level of knowledge about cardiopulmonary resuscitation than those who working in the intensive care unit (p<0,05). The number of correct answers of nurses with advanced life support certificate (%12,3, n=25) has been found to be higher than those who do not have advanced life support certificate. It has been determined that only 43.1% of the nurses (n=88) were aware of the 2015 AHA guideline.

Conclusion: In our study it was determined that the emergency and intensive care nurses’ levels of knowledge towards cardiopulmonary resuscitation were not sufficient. It is recommended that this lacking should be eliminated with in-service training programs. Also it is suggested that nurses should be ensured to be aware of current informations on cardiopulmonary resuscitation.