Knowledge on Basic Life Support among Nursing Students in a Nursing College

Abstract

Background: Basic life support (BLS) is the foundation for saving lives following cardiac arrest. It helps to maintain patients' circulation and respiration until advanced life support arrives. It is necessary to prevent sudden death due to life-threatening illnesses or injuries.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional research design was adopted to find out the knowledge on basic life support among nursing students in a nursing college. Data was collected using probability stratified random sampling technique. The structured self-administered questionnaire was used. Data was collected from 2078/12/20 to 2079/01/03 and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16 with descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: This study reveals that 35.4% had received basic life support training. 68.4% of the respondents had exposed to cardiac arrest cases and 63.3% of them performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. Only 17.1% of the respondents knew about the oro/nasopharyngeal airway as a method to open the airway for unconscious patients with no gag reflex. Only 27.2% of the respondents knew the correct sequence of using an automated external defibrillator. 65.2% had good knowledge of BLS. The level of knowledge of BLS was significantly associated with the nursing stream (P-value=0.004). There is no significant association between the level of knowledge and BLS training, time of last training, duration of training, exposure to cardiac arrest cases, and performance of CPR.

Conclusions: The nursing students have good knowledge of BLS. Despite inadequate knowledge about some components of BLS like the use of oro/nasopharyngeal airway and AED.