ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE REGARDING BASIC LIFE SUPPORT AMONG NURSES OF PUNJAB INSTITUTE OF CARDIOLOGY, LAHORE

Introduction: Basic life support (BLS) is a life saving manuveur that identifies cessation of heartbeat and performing cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques to revert the hemodynamic status until proper recovery or transportation to an advanced cardiac life support facility. Therefore it is imperative

that all the  nurses should possess adequate knowledge about the basic life support guidelines.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 nurses working in Punjab Institute of Cardiology during September 2019 and December 2019. Purposive sampling using self- structured questionnaire was implied for data collection.

Results: Majority (52%) of the respondents were between 20 to 25 years of age. 62% of respondents had basic diploma of nursing , 34 % of bachelor of science in nursing and 4% possessed Post Graduate Degree. 67% respondents had working experience of 5-10 years and 33% of 10-15 years and above.

Discussions: 97% respondents had heard about BLS before in their lifes but 84% of them had never attended any BLS training. Most of the respondents (92 %) had seen CPR being done and more than half of the respondents (68%) had done CPR. 72% stated circulation, airway and breathing as the latest CPR sequence. 92% of the respondents said cardiac arrest is the indication of CPR. 46 % had inadequate knowledge, 42% had moderate knowledge while minority 12 % had adequate knowledge on Basic Life Support.

Conclusion: Majority of the nurses working in Punjab Institute of Cardiology possess  inadequate knowledge regarding Basic Life Support. There was also no association between the knowledge and academic qualification or experience.

Keywords: Basic Life Support; cardio pulmonary resuscitation; cardiac arrest