Safe Use of Defibrillators: A Case Study in Greek Registered Nurses

Abstract

International literature reveals the deficit of nurses’ knowledge on the defibrillator and the need to implement continuing education training courses relative to clinical issues.

The purpose of this study was the evaluation of Greek registered nurses’ knowledge on the safe use of the defibrillator before and after a 2-h workshop. Anonymous self-administered validated questionnaire consisted of two parts was used to collect the data, after the written consent of the participants. The sample consisted of 65 participants (12 men and 53 women) and the output data were analyzed with SPSS v. 19.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). The quantitative variables are expressed as mean values (SD) or as median values (interquartile range = IQR) while the qualitative variables are expressed as absolute and relative frequencies. For the comparison of the proportions of the correct answers before and after the intervention, McNemar tests were used. A knowledge score was computed for every participant from all correct answers and converted to a scale from 0 to 100 (where 0 = none correct answer and 100 = all answers were correct). Paired Student’s t-tests were used for the comparison of the knowledge score before and after the intervention. All reported p values are two-tailed and the statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. The mean knowledge score increased significantly from 66.7% to 91.3% after the intervention. The study showed that the implementation of educational programs contributes positively to update registered nurses’ knowledge on clinical issues, which cannot be replenished only through undergraduate education and experience.