Assessing cardiopulmonary resuscitation knowledge and attitudes among nurses working in adult general wards at Kamuzu Central Hospital, Malawi

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2019-06-01
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This study looked at knowledge of nurses in diagnosing patients who need cardiopulmonary resuscitation; examined nurse’s knowledge on how to conduct cardiopulmonary resuscitation; and nurse’s attitude towards cardiopulmonary resuscitation in adult general ward at Kamuzu Central Hospital. A descriptive quantitative survey approach was used for the study. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire which also included 10 questions adopted from American Heart Association written Basic Life Support exam version 11 of year 2010. Analysis of the data was done using Statistical Package for Social Science version 23 and Excel packages to draw out mean, frequencies and percentages. A sample of 61 nurses in adult general wards was recruited using consecutive sampling. The results of the study showed that 65% (n=40) could be able to diagnose a patient needing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Nurse’s attitude towards cardiopulmonary resuscitation was positive in 73% (n=44) of the nurses. However, knowledge on cardiopulmonary resuscitation graded using American Heart Association pass rate of 84% was very poor as only 7 % (n=4) of the nurses passed. A chi square test using fishers exact test at 5% significance level showed that nurses with experience of less than ten years had significantly higher knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation at 63.4 % compared to those between ten and fifteen years of experience at 23 % with p value of 0.042.Periodic CPR trainings for the nurses and consider CPR certification for all bedside nurses. CPR knowledge among nurses is very low but needed. CPR trainings can help to rectify the problem.
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