Knowledge and Skills of the Senior Students of Paramedical, Nursing and Medical Faculties on Cardiopulmonary Arrest Recognition, Maintenance of Chest Compression and Ventilation

Abstract

Aim: We believe that automatic external defibrillators are not common in our country and aimed to compare the knowledge and skills of senior students in paramedical, nursing and medical faculties on recognizing cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA) case, providing proper chest compression and maintenance of ventilation as well as evaluating cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) cycle one month before starting profession. Materials and Methods: Fifty senior students from paramedic department, 50 senior students from nursing department and 50 senior students from medical school were included in the study. The participants were asked 10 theoretical questions to evaluate their basic resuscitation knowledge. Each participant was then asked to intervene in a suspicious CPA case using Prestan Adult CPR Manikin alone in a separate room. Results: The highest rate of correct answers given to theoretical questions related to CPR was in paramedic students with a mean score of 7.34 +/- 1.99 points among the students of these three departments (p=0.001). The mean scores of both theoretical and practical application of paramedic students were found to be significantly higher than the students of the nursing and medical faculties, when all three groups were compared with each other with regard to their mean success scores of theoretical and practical applications. Conclusion: In our study, the mean scores of both theoretical and practical application of paramedic students were found to be significantly higher than the other groups.