Knowledge of Basic Life Support among the Nursing Staff and Students of KIMSDU.

ABSTRACT

Background: Nursing staff plays important role in the health care system; one of the key skills that students should develop during their training is to be prepared for emergency life saving measures like cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) anytime, anywhere. At least the doctors, nursing and paramedical staff are expected to know about it, as they frequently face life threatening situations. Objectives: a) To evaluate the CPR awareness among nursing staff and students. b) To screen the knowledge regarding accurate, effective CPR procedural techniques and various barriers of CPR failure in clinical practice from a student perspective. Methods: A cross-sectional Observational study conducted among nursing staff and students of the Krishna institute of nursing science, Karad. Maharashtra. Results: No one has complete knowledge of BLS. Only 3% of total students have 80% knowledge about BLS.81% of the students has less than 50% of knowledge.Conclusion:It can be concluded that not only the nursing staff and students be trained in Basic Life Support, but also it has to be reinforced from time to time, since the skills of CPR are difficult to teach and once taught difficult to retain. As these are the persons, who are near the patient for 24 hrs easily approachable with in no time till the resident or the CMO attends the patient in the hospital. Also, this should be incorporated into the academic curriculum, as it will become a compulsory topic to be dealt with specially for the nursing students.