KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF REHAB SCIENCES STUDENTS TOWARDS BYSTANDER CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Pakistan has one of the most elevated death rates from road traffic accidents with an estimated 146,000
people died and 2.8 million injured per year. In number of emergency conditions, CPR is a significant
life-sparing methodology in response to sudden heart failure accompanied by resuscitation, and fast
defibrillation. Therefore, this study aims to explore the knowledge and attitude of rehab sciences
students towards bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

METHODOLOGY
A cross-sectional survey conducted on 136 physiotherapy students recruited via convenience sampling
technique. A self-administered questionnaire including questions regarding knowledge and attitude
towards bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation were distributed via email or Google Docs to record
participants’ responses.

RESULTS
A total number of 136 responses received from distributed questionnaires from participants with mean
age of 22.34±3.92 with 109 (79.2%) females and 27 (19.9%) males. It was revealed that (83.1%)
majority of students have understating regarding CPR whereas (62.7%) has taken the course due to
mandatory work or graduation requirement (58.2%) while the main source of attained knowledge was
teaching by medical personnel in school/university. Moreover, (84.3%) students had a positive attitude
to learn and perform CPR training.

CONCLUSION
It was concluded that that majority of students have understanding regarding CPR and had a positive
attitude to learn and perform the technique. However, the knowledge was found to be average therefore
an accreditation program is recommended for an undergraduate curriculum. Moreover, further studies
are recommended to be conduct in future to evaluate the knowledge gaps in medical education.

Cardiopulmonary, Resuscitation, Heart, CPR, Health, Physiotherapy, Defibrillator