The Practice on Adult Advanced Life Support and the Influencing Factors among the Nursing Officers Working in Teaching Hospital Jaffna

Abstract

Advanced Life Support (ALS) given at the right time with accurate knowledge and skills is essential for improving mortality in Cardiac Arrest; by this means, nursing professionals must be well practiced, competent and confident to deal with medical emergencies. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the level of practice and the influencing factors on adult ALS among the Nursing Officers working in Teaching Hospital Jaffna. Hospital based descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out, among all the staff nurses (490) working in Teaching Hospital Jaffna, during one month data collection period. Data was collected by a self-administered questionnaire. Data were processed in SPSS version 23. Chi squared statistical test and Fisher’s exact test (2 tailed) were performed to identify the influencing factors. In this study; majority of the participants were female (76.1%) and most of them were diploma holders (81.3%). More than two-third of the nurses had not received formal in-service training on ALS at all. Overall, only 20.4% nurses had Good practice, approximately half of the nurses (48.5%) had Average practice and the practice score was inadequate among 30.5% of the total study population (n=326). This study also demonstrated the statistical significant relationship of several socio-demographic, educational, personal and hospital related factors related to the practice on ALS. Conclusion: This study illustrated that; although majority of the nurses had average practice level or more, poor practice was there among significant amount of the study population. Practice deficit should be addressed properly to improve the outcome of the patient.