Advances in Medical Education and Practice (Jan 2017)

Attitude and skill levels of graduate health professionals in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation

  • Gebreegziabher Gebremedhn E,
  • Berhe Gebregergs G,
  • Anderson BB,
  • Nagaratnam V

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 8
pp. 43 – 50

Abstract

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Endale Gebreegziabher Gebremedhn,1 Gebremedhn Berhe Gebregergs,2 Bernard Bradley Anderson,3,† Vidhya Nagaratnam1 1Department of Anaesthesia, School of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, 2Department of Public Health, Bahir Dar College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, 3Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia †Dr Bernard Bradley Anderson passed away on January 2, 2014 Background: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure used to treat victims following cardiopulmonary arrest. Graduate health professionals at the University of Gondar Teaching Hospital manage many trauma and critically ill patients. The chance of survival after cardiopulmonary arrest may be increased with sufficient attitude and skill levels. The study aimed to assess the attitude and skill levels of graduate health professionals in performing CPR.Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from May 1 to 30, 2013, at the University of Gondar Teaching Hospital. The mean attitude and skill scores were compared for sex, original residence, and department of the participants using Student’s t-test and analysis of variance (Scheffe’s test). P-values <0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.Results: Of the 506 graduates, 461 were included in this study with a response rate of 91.1%. The mean attitude scores of nurse, interns, health officer, midwifery, anesthesia, and psychiatric nursing graduates were 1.15 (standard deviation [SD] =1.67), 8.21 (SD =1.24), 7.2 (SD =1.49), 6.69 (SD =1.83), 8.19 (SD =1.77), and 7.29 (SD =2.01), respectively, and the mean skill scores were 2.34 (SD =1.95), 3.77 (SD =1.58), 1.18 (SD =1.52), 2.16 (SD =1.93), 3.88 (SD =1.36), and 1.21 (SD =1.77), respectively.Conclusion and recommendations: Attitude and skill level of graduate health professionals with regard to CPR were insufficient. Training on CPR for graduate health professionals needs to be given emphasis. Keywords: cardiopulmonary resuscitation, attitude, skill, graduate health professionals

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