Assessment of long-term impact of formal certified cardiopulmonary resuscitation training program among nurses.
BACKGROUND
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and emergency cardiovascular care guidelines are periodically renewed and published by the American Heart Association. Formal training programs are conducted based on these guidelines. Despite widespread training CPR is often poorly performed. Hospital educators spend a significant amount of time and money in training health professionals and maintaining basic life support (BLS) and advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) skills among them. However, very little data are available in the literature highlighting the long-term impact of these training.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of formal certified CPR training program on the knowledge and skill of CPR among nurses, to identify self-reported outcomes of attempted CPR and training needs of nurses.


METHODS
Tertiary care hospital, Prospective, repeated-measures design.


METHODS
A series of certified BLS and ACLS training programs were conducted during 2010 and 2011. Written and practical performance tests were done. Final testing was undertaken 3-4 years after training. The sample included all available, willing CPR certified nurses and experience matched CPR noncertified nurses.


METHODS
SPSS for Windows version 21.0.


RESULTS
The majority of the 206 nurses (93 CPR certified and 113 noncertified) were females. There was a statistically significant increase in mean knowledge level and overall performance before and after the formal certified CPR training program (P = 0.000). However, the mean knowledge scores were equivalent among the CPR certified and noncertified nurses, although the certified nurses scored a higher mean score (P = 0.140).


CONCLUSIONS
Formal certified CPR training program increases CPR knowledge and skill. However, significant long-term effects could not be found. There is a need for regular and periodic recertification.
Division of Nursing Education, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
P P
PP
Saramma
Division of Nursing Service, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
L Suja
LS
Raj
Department of Anaesthesiology, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
P K
PK
Dash
Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
P S
PS
Sarma
Advanced cardiac life support; advanced life support; basic life support; cardiopulmonary resuscitation training; tertiary