Abstracto

Health-care professional’s theoretical knowledge of resuscitation guidelines decreases over time: A sample designed study.

Marie Louise Södersved Källestedt, Annica Ravn Fischer, Simon Liljeström, Anneli Strömsöe

Background:Many factors may affect survival rates after in-hospital cardiac arrest, including knowledge among health-care professionals. The aim of this study was to describe health-care professionals’ theoretical knowledge of resuscitation guidelines five years after the introduction of a systematic standardized training program. An additional aim was to look at survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest. Methods: This study was conducted at the county hospital in Västmanland, Sweden. The study was conducted using random sampling at two time points over two different years. In 2009, all health-care professionals were offered the opportunity to participate in a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) education program and answered a multiple-choice questionnaire regarding their knowledge of CPR guidelines. Five years later (in 2014), health-care professionals working at the same hospital answered the same questions. The results from the two tests were then compared using chi-squared tests. Results: A total of 2,034 individuals participated in the study in 2009 and 1,519 participated in 2014. Overall, 19.6% of the health-care professionals achieved a correct response rate of at least 80% in 2009, whereas in 2014 only 7% did so. Discussion: Many factors affect the survival rate, with education of hospital employees being only one. However, during the five years following the offered CPR education, and parallel with deterioration in hospital employees’ theoretical knowledge of the guidelines, a sharp decrease in the 30-day survival rate was observed among patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest. Conclusions: Long-term follow-up of an educational intervention among all employees in one hospital indicated a marked deterioration in knowledge of CPR. Five years after the intervention, only 7% of all health-care professionals showed adequate theoretical knowledge of the guidelines. Our results indicate that established guidelines for regular CPR training are not followed.