The Effectiveness of In-service Training Course on Adult Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation based on the Kirkpatrick Model

Background: Cardiopulmonary arrest is one of the most critical medical emergencies in the emergency department. Nurses’ knowledge and skills play an essential role in successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Therefore, holding in-service training courses is considered vital. Objectives: This study evaluated the effectiveness of an in-service training course (ISTC) on adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) based on the Kirkpatrick model. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 50 emergency department nurses of 5-Azar Hospital in Gorgan, Iran. Training effectiveness was implemented on the four levels of Kirkpatrick's model (including reaction, learning, performance, and findings). The raw data were analyzed by the SPSS version 21 software with descriptive statistics (frequency, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (including Paired t-test and Independent Samples t-test) in a significant level of α = 0.05. Results: The overall effectiveness of ISTC for adult CPR was reported as 83.23%. The chance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation success increased from 25% in the first six months to 53% in the second six months. In addition, the effectiveness of ISTC was observed in the four levels of the Kirkpatrick model. Conclusions: Based on the findings, in-service CPR training had a favorable effect on all four levels of the Kirkpatrick model for nurses. The findings of this study significantly increased the efficiency of personnel because evaluating the quality of training courses made them more effective.