Abstract

Aim. This study was aimed to evaluate the changes in the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills of nursing students during a two year interval.

Background. CPR skills are of vital skills every healthcare worker should posses. Several studies are available on CPR skills of nursing students, however, changes in the students' skills have rarely been studied.

Method. This time series study was conducted on all graduating nursing students who were passing their internship period during 2011-2012. Data collection instrument had two parts including demographics form and a checklist for assessment of CPR skills (including closed chest compression, tracheal intubation, using of defibrillator and CPR management). Descriptive statistics were used for reporting the findings.

Findings. Seeking no help was the most frequent mistake made by the students in the domain of cardiac massage and artificial ventilation, both in the first and the third assessment. Only 41.67% and 32.61% of the students sought help in the first and the third assessment, respectively. Pressing the laryngoscope blade on the teeth was also the most common mistake in the domain of using the laryngoscope so that only 50% of the students performed this action correctly in all the three assessments. The most common error in the domain of defibrillation was ignoring repetition of the defibrillation in cases the patient’s cardiac rhythm did not returned to normal, so that only 52.08%, 28% and 21.74% of the students performed defibrillation correctly in all the three assessments, respectively.

Conclusion: Most of the students were evaluated as weak, especially in the CPR management domain. Retraining the CPR skills are suggested, especially when the students are near graduation.