Evaluating Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Skills and Knowledge in Medical and Dental Students of Islamabad and Abbottabad, Pakistan

Abstract

Objectives: Cardiopulmonary arrest, a medical emergency is considered as leading cause of sudden death throughout the globe. It is an unpredicted, sudden stoppage of breathing and/ or circulation of a person due to certain causes. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is a technique for reviving of those heart failure individuals and it involves competence of operator, the condition of victim and present resources at that time of emergency. All individuals, specially medical and dental persons must be well learned and ready to deal such health related emergencies at anytime and anywhere. Present study was aimed to assess the level of information and practical ability to do CPR in medical emergency among the medical and dental students.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the level of information and practical ability to do CPR in medical emergency among the students of medical and dental institutes of Islamabad and Abbottabad, Pakistan, from January to March 2024. 280 Students (123 male and 157 female  students) from 4 and final year of BDS and MBBS were chosen randomly. Information about CPR was collected by objective type paper of 30 questions (20 true false and 10 MCQ's). Each question carried equal one mark with 50% passing marks. Practical ability was evaluated checking performance on the SimMan simulator (the high-fidelity simulator).

Results: Level of assessment comprised of two parts theory paper and practical ability test. In initial paper based theory assessment, out of 280 participants, 197 (70%) students secured less than 50% marks and failed. When practical abilities assessed, 80.7% students could not perform correctly and failed. In practical abilities test, students were unsuccessful due to compression rate error (199), ventilation rate error (196) and failed of wrong hand positioning (213) when asked to perform CPR practically.

Conclusion: Medical emergencies are inevitable and require adequate information and skills to save life. The level of the knowledge and practical abilities among the medical and dental students to do CPR in case of emergency is below the requirements. It is therefore utmost important to plan regular training sessions and dissemination of information to medical and dental students to recover deficiency, improve weakness and enhance their confidence and clinical skills while dealing such emergency.