Theoretical Knowledge on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation among Student Nurses at School of Nursing Lafia, Nigeria

Introduction

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be defined as a life-saving emergency procedure that involves breathing for the victim and applying external chest compression to make the heart pump.¹ CPR has become a life-saving technique, and is no longer limited to health- related professionals, which can be effective to decrease the mortality and morbidity in many medical emergencies such as heart attack and other conditions where the circulatory collapse occurs.² However, sudden cardiac death is the most common cause of death resulting in 17 million deaths every year worldwide or accounting for 25% of global mortality. Out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest is a global health issue with a reported incidence of 40.6 per 100,000 people in Europe, 47.³ in North America, 45.9 in Asia and 51.1 in Australia. Decreasing the time of initiation of CPR is crucial for improving outcomes in cardiac arrest cases.³ Moreover, early and effective CPR increases both the survival rate and post arrest quality of life.⁴ Multiple studies have investigated the implementation of high-quality prehospital resuscitative efforts, and across these studies, different terms describing high-quality resuscitative efforts have been used, such as high-performance CPR with an improved chance of survival.⁵ The core study dataset complied with Utstein-style. Primary outcomes were return of spontaneous circulation and survival to hospital admission. Secondary outcome was survival to hospital discharge.⁶ The objectives of this study were to assess the theoretical knowledge on cardiopulmonary resuscitation among nursing students and to determine the association between the level of theoretical knowledge regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the selected sociodemographic variables.

Research Hypothesis

H_1:1 There is a statistical significance of theoretical knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

H_0:2 There is no statistical significance association between the level of theoretical knowledge regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the selected sociodemographic variables.

Materials and Methods

Study Design

The study utilized a descriptive survey design to investigate the target population of student nurses at the School of Nursing in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

The sample size comprised 50 student nurses from the same institution. A non-probability convenient sampling technique was employed to select the participants, allowing the researchers to gather data from those who were readily available and willing to participate in the study

Instrument

The instrument for data collection was adopted and modified to suit the research objectives. The questionnaire consisted of two sections - Section A, and Section B. Section A included questions pertaining to socio-demographic data, while Section B consisted of 20 questions related to theoretical knowledge on cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Data collection

Formal permission was taken from the Principal of School of Nursing Lafia, Nasarawa State. The data for the main study were collected from 50 study participants, which comprised 100, 200, and 300 level students. The researcher gave formal self-introduction and explained the main purpose of the study. On an average, it took about 50-60 minutes to collect the responses from all the participants. The subjects were assured on the maintenance of confidentiality in terms of their responses.

Data analysis

Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of IBM SPSS Statistics version 23.0.

Table 1 shows that the age ranges of the respondents included in the study were between 18-20 years, 21-23 years, and ≥ 24 years, which accounted for 25 (50%), 18 (36%), and 7 (14%) subjects, respectively. In terms of gender, males were the minority representing 20%, while females comprised the majority representing 80%. Most of the respondents 45 (90%) were unmarried, while 5 (10%) subjects were married. In terms of religious practice, 18 (36%) practiced Christianity, while 32 (64%) practiced Islam. Similarly, in terms of the respondents’ level of study, 100 level, 200 level, and 300 level accounted for 22 (44%), 6 (12%), 22 (44%), respectively. According to their area of residence, 20 (40%) were residing in rural areas, while 30 (60%) were from urban areas. However, 49 (98%) of the target population had previous exposure to theoretical knowledge on CPR, while one (2%) subject did not have any prior knowledge.

The bar chart (Figure 2) above shows that, out of 50 respondents, 42 had adequate knowledge, seven had moderate knowledge, while only one respondent had inadequate theoretical knowledge regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation which accounted for 84.0%, 14.0%, and 2.0%, respectively.

Table 3 depicts that no statistically significant association was noted between the level of theoretical knowledge regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the selected socio-demographic variables of the respondents (age, gender, marital status, religion, level of study, and previous knowledge of CPR).

Discussion

On analysis of sociodemographic variables, age range of the respondents was noted to be between 18-20 years, 21-23 years, and ≥24 years which accounted for 25 (50%), 18 (36%), and 7 (14%) respondents, respectively. In terms of gender, males were the minority representing 20%, while females comprised the majority representing 80%. Most of the respondents 45 (90%) are unmarried, while 5 (10%) are married. In terms of religion, 18 (36%) practiced Christianity, while 32 (64%) practiced Islam. Similarly, in terms of the respondents’ level of study, 100 level, 200 level, and 300 level accounted for 22 (44%), 6 (12%), 22 (44%) respondents, respectively. According to their area of residence, 20 (40%) were residing in rural areas, while 30 (60%) were from urban areas. It was reported that 49 (98%) of the study population had previous theoretical knowledge regarding CPR, while one (2%) of the participant had no prior knowledge.

The results showed that, out of the 50 respondents included, 42 had adequate knowledge, seven had moderate knowledge, while only one had inadequate theoretical knowledge regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation which accounted for 84.0%, 14.0%, and 2.0%, respectively.

Implications of the findings with literature support

Of the 50 respondents included in the current study, majority 42 (84.0%) had adequate knowledge, 7 (14.0%) had moderate knowledge, while only one respondent (2.0%) had inadequate theoretical knowledge regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Therefore, the H_0:1 hypothesis was rejected, while H_1:1 hypothesis was accepted. This is in conformity with a study conducted by Aranzabal-Algeria G et al., on factors influencing knowledge regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation in hospitals in Peru. Convenience sampling was used to select 1075 healthcare workers from 25 hospitals in Peru. Data were collected using a questionnaire. The results showed that 95% had good knowledge, while 5% had poor knowledge about CPR. ⁷

No statistically significant association between their level of theoretical knowledge on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the selected socio-demographic variables (age, gender, marital status, religion, level of study, and previous knowledge of CPR) was noted. Hence the H_1:2 hypothesis was rejected, while H_0:2 hypothesis was accepted. This is in conformity with a study conducted by Vidmanic S to assess nurses’ knowledge on cardiopulmonary arrest and resuscitation emergency in Croatia. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 91 emergency nurses from three University hospitals. The results showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between the level of knowledge and the selected socio-demographic variables, additional training (P=0.28) and working experience (P =0.38).⁸

Findings aligned with previous study cited

Out of 50 respondents, majority 42 (84.0%) had adequate knowledge, 7 (14.0%) had moderate knowledge, while only 1 (2.0%) respondent had inadequate theoretical knowledge on cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Therefore, the H_0:1 hypothesis was rejected while H_1:1 hypothesis was accepted, which is in conformity with a study conducted by Vandali V et al. assessing the knowledge regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) among first year GNM (Diploma nursing students) students studying at SND College of Nursing with an aim to develop an information booklet. Purposive sampling was used to select 50 samples. Data were collected using a questionnaire. The findings clearly showed that only one student had poor knowledge regarding CPR, 38% had adequate knowledge, while 62% had good knowledge.⁹

There was no statistically significant association between their level of theoretical knowledge on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the selected socio-demographic variables (age, gender, marital status, religion, level of study, and previous knowledge of CPR). Hence the H_1:2 hypothesis was rejected while H_0:2 Hypothesis was accepted, which conforms with the findings of a study conducted by Raiz S et al., on assessment of cardiopulmonary resuscitation among Pharmacy students of Mirpur, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, India. Convenience sampling was used to select 150 Pharmacy students. The results showed no statistically significant association between level of knowledge and the selected socio-demographic variable (previous CPR training).¹⁰

Limitations of the study

This study was limited to a sample of 50 student nurses from School of Nursing Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The study was limited to the experience of the researcher.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the results revealed that majority of the respondents had adequate knowledge with only a few respondents demonstrating inadequate theoretical knowledge regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation. There was no statistically significant association between their level of theoretical knowledge on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the selected socio-demographic variables (age, gender, marital status, religion, level of study, and previous knowledge of CPR).

Ethical consideration

The proposed study was conducted after the approval from Ethical committee, Ministry of Health Lafia, Nasarawa State of Nigeria and necessary permissions were also obtained from the school principal and the study participants.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil

Conflict of interest

Nil