Examining Nurses’ Theoretical Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation in Hospitals and Primary Health Care Settings in South Sharqiyah, Sultanate of Oman

Objectives: This study attempts to identify the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of CPR among nurses in South Sharqyiah governorate, Oman. Moreover, it evaluates the association between the knowledge score and the selected variables. This will help to review the effectiveness of current CPR training, thus set up recommendations for better CPR programs. Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between April and July 2019 in governmental hospitals and Primary Health care (PHC) institutions in Southern Sharqyiah Oman. A questionnaire-based survey was used to collect data from 282 registered staff nurses, including the Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) knowledge in both Basic Life support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life support (ACLS), and nurses' attitude and practice towards CPR. Results: An excellent response rate of a total of 267 nurses (94.6%) took part in the study. Overall, nurses demonstrated inadequate level of knowledge in BLS their mean±SD of the total knowledge scores was 9.05±3.228. Like BLS knowledge, the participants demonstrated inadequate level of knowledge in ACLS as the total mean ±SD was 3.47±.1. 784. The study noted a significant association between the total scores of BLS knowledge and nationality (p=0.028). Conclusions: The result of this study has confirmed that knowledge of the nurses in BLS and ACLS was found to be low. The study revealed high numbers of staff nurses need to renew BLS and ACLS certificates. Thus, there is a crucial need for innovative educational interventions related to CPR. There is also a need to evaluate the knowledge and performance of CPR in clinical area such as mock drill.