Excelling Cognizance Through Educational Package on Basic Cardiac Life Support: An Evaluative Study

Introduction

When someone faces an emergency situation like heart attack, performing the procedure of Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) as a first aid treatment before the person could reach the medical facility is required to save the life. The main aspect in CPR that is considered as vital part is Basic Life Support (BLS). When we look into the classical meaning of CPR, it is the technique performed to revive the function of heart and lung when it pauses due to some disease condition which seriously causes brain damage. CPR or otherwise called as Cardiopulmonary Cerebro Resuscitation (CPCR) must be carried out immediately without delay once the casualty experiences the symptoms of cessation of breathing, so that the life of the client would be saved from brain damage or death. CPR is comprised of two techniques which includes rescue breathing and external chest compression. It is a vital part of emergency resuscitative care that directs to retain adequate ventilation and circulation until the reason of the arrest is revealed and abolished. Cardiac or respiratory arrests are most common exigency in adults, children and neonates. Cardiovascular disease is a chief factor causing morbidity and mortality, both in the developing and developed countries all over the world. It reports for 17.3 million deaths every year. It is predicted to grow to more than 23.6 million by 2030. Efficacious and well timed CPR reduces the probability of death following sudden cardiac arrest. Cardio Pulmonary Cerebro resuscitation is part of the emergency cardiac care system proposal to save lives. Many deaths can be prevented by prompt acclamation of the problem and warning of the Emergency Medical System (EMS), followed by preliminary Cardiopulmonary Cerebro resuscitation, defibrillation and advanced cardiac life support measures. The American Heart Association has embraced, supported and helped to develop the concept of emergency cardiovascular care (ECC) systems for many decades. The term chain of survival provides a useful analogy for the elements of the ECG systems theory. The five links in the adult chain of survival are: Immediate identification of cardiac arrest and stimulation of the emergency response system, early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with a prominence on chest compressions, expeditious defibrillation, constructive advanced life support and amalgamated post cardiac arrest care.

Background of the Study

In recent times, nursing education concentrated on theoretical education and thereby huge gap between theoretical and clinical education was generated. The new nursing peer group needs to grow in real and time purveying of indispensable care to their patients. For that, nursing students need obligatory knowledge and skill by recurrent training and practice. A descriptive, cross-sectional study among 241 undergraduate medical students in Tamil Nadu was conducted by Mani (2014). A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data and the results showed that mean knowledge score of the participants was 4.55±1.21 and this difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). A one group pre-test post-test study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of planned teaching programme on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) technique among thirty B.Sc. Nursing students by Ravinder (2013). A simple random technique with a structured closed ended questionnaire and an observation checklist was used to collect data. The contrast between pre-test and post-test knowledge scores of degree students on CPR technique was found to be very highly significant. Many nursing researchers reported that nursing students, nonetheless of good knowledge base, weren’t masterly in clinical settings. Clinical practice is needed in clinical education for the students of college of nursing. Health teaching is an inherent part of nursing and it provides a scientific attitude towards health, which is very important to present-day healthy living. Apposite knowledge and skills regarding BLS and appropriate application of the same is necessary for nursing students.

Materials and Methods

After the approval of IEC from concerned authority, pre experimental research design (One group pre-test and post-test research design) was adopted to accomplish the objectives of the study as appropriate. Seventyseven nursing students based on inclusion criteria were selected by using simple random technique. The written informed consent was obtained from subjects after explanation regarding the objective and nature of study and confidentiality. On day 1, Pre-test was conducted and educational package which included demonstration on Basic Cardiac Life Support with instruction module prepared by the investigators were provided to the study participants following pre-test. Then Post-test was performed after seven days. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results and Discussion

Considering the distribution of 77 subjects based on their demographic variables, majority of subjects 65 (84.4%) belonged to 16 – 18 years of age and 61 (79.2%) were females and minority 16 (20.8) were males. Most of the study samples 30 (39.0%) participated in NCC, 14 (18.2%) participated in Scouts and 28 (36.4%) participated in none of the activities during their school period.

Table 1 revealed that in the pre-test, 50 (64.9%) had average knowledge and 27 (35.1%) had poor knowledge regarding Basic Cardiac Life Support, whereas in the post-test, 36 (46.8%) had good knowledge, 41 (53.2%) had very good knowledge. The present study findings are consistent with the findings of a study conducted for MGR University Dissertation in Oct 2015 in which it was observed that only (01) 2% had good knowledge, while all the others (26) 52%, (22) 44%, had poor knowledge, and average knowledge respectively.

In table 2, the mean score of knowledge was 7.58±2.142 and the post-test mean score was 20.22±1.868. The mean difference was 12.64. The obtained ‘t’ test value t = 38.156 was found to be statistically significant at p<0.01 level. This clearly indicates that educational package on knowledge regarding Basic Cardiac Life Support to nursing students had significant effect and their level of knowledge increased in the post-test. The findings of the present study are consistent with a study done by Prempati Mayanlambam (2015). It was found that the students already participated or involved themselves in some social activities like NSS and NCC during their school period which showed statistically significant association with post-test level of knowledge regarding Basic Cardiac Life Support among nursing students at p<0.01 level. There was no association found between knowledge level and other demographic variables.

Conclusion

The current study results showed that the educational package was effective and beneficial in promoting knowledge regarding Basic Cardiac Life Support among first year nursing students. After an intervention was applied, there was a drastic improvement in knowledge and was sensitized that all the participants were confident to perform BCLS. Therefore this selected intervention can be endorsed throughout nursing education in order to increase the skill in performing BCLS among the nursing students during their clinical training, which would be helpful to save lives. Also, such kind of intervention can be advocated by the nursing officer to the common people in their health care and community settings.

Conflict of Interest

None.