Students’ knowledge and attitudes toward basic life support
Mysara Alfakey, Ahmed Alkarani
Abstract
Students spend a significant proportion of their day in colleges and healthcare facilities where they might experience medical emergencies, or unexpected accidents, that occur in these places. Nursing students are expected to play a key role in performing basic life support. This study is to evaluate knowledge, attitudes and training status with regard to basic life support (BLS). An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in Taif University, Saudi Arabia. 170 students agreed to fill out a questionnaire. The questions used in the questionnaire were prepared according to 2015 AHA guidelines. The majority of subjects (52.9%) reported that they had attended a BLS course. The mean age of the study population was 21.64 years. Previous CPR training had a significant effect on the correct responses (P <0.01). This study found significant differences between the students observed: (58.3%) of students with previous BLS training felt capable of providing CPR to their fellow college students, compared to (42.7%) in the group without previous training (P =0.01). Importantly, over all subjects the attitude to learning on a BLS training course was positive. Inconclusions this study corroborates previous reports that the knowledge, skills and attitudes of trained students are better than those of untrained students.
Keywords
Basic life support; Nursing students; Saudi Arabia; Training