Assessment of Knowledge and Skill of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation among Health Professionals in St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College Pediatrics and Child Health Department

Abstract

Abstract Background: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency lifesaving procedure done on a patient having cardiac arrest in order to keep blood flowing to preserve intact brain function until an advanced life support can be given or return of spontaneous circulation can be achieved. The knowledge and skill of health professionals involved in the care of patients with cardiac arrest has an effect on the quality of Cardiopulmonary resuscitation provided to the patients; thus affecting patient outcome after cardiac arrest. Objective: This study is aimed to assess the knowledge and skill of Cardiopulmonary resuscitation among health professionals working in St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College Pediatrics and Child health department. Methods: Institution based descriptive cross sectional study was conducted from February 1, 2021 to June30; 2021. The data was collected using a structured and pretested questionnaire prepared according to the content of the recent American Heart Association guideline. The skill assessment was done using the AHA CPR skill assessment checklist to evaluate a demonstration of CPR on high fidelity manikin. The data was inserted to EpiData version 3.1 and was analyzed using SPSS version 26. Results: 202 participants participated with a final sample size of 190 after exclusion of incomplete data. The age of study participants ranged from 22-40 years with a median of 27 years (IQR 25 28). 91 (47.9%) were nurses, 34 (17.9%) interns, 63(33.1%) were pediatric residents, and 2 pediatricians (1.1%). The mean knowledge assessment score was 38.51% (SD=14.68) and median 35.29% (IQR = 29.41-47.06) with no participant scoring above 84%. Nurses had the lowest score on the written test. The mean skill assessment score was 22.01% (SD=14.25) with the highest scored by pediatricians. Participants working at pediatric intensive care unit scored the highest on skill assessment while those working at neonatal intensive care unit scored the lowest. Conclusion: This study has shown that the knowledge and skill of CPR among the health professionals working at SPHMMC pediatrics department is poor. Being a nurse is associated with less knowledge and being a pediatrician and working at PICU was associated with better skill of CPR while working at NICU was associated with lesser skill of CPR. Key terms: Assessment, Knowledge, Skill, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation