Abstract

Background: Basic life support (BLS) is a lifesaving skill which every health-care personnel must know. It has been added to the curriculum but still studies have shown poor knowledge and skill among them in India.

Aims and Objectives: The aim of our study was to assess attitude and knowledge of BLS among healthcare personnel in a tertiary care center of Sikkim and to recommend training of BLS according to the finding of our study.

Materials and Methods: A questionnaire based cross-sectional study was done among junior doctors, physiotherapists, and nursing staffs, who were willing to participate. The questionnaire collected data under the heading of demographics, attitude, awareness, and knowledge about various domains of BLS. Analysis was done with standard statistical software.

Results: Among 208 completed surveys, 24 (11.5%) were males and 184 (88.5%) were females, majority of them (76.4%) were nursing staff and belonged to 20–30-year age group (76%). Mean score of the participants were 13.43 ± 3.725 with a range from 2 to 21. The necessity of BLS training and the requirement of mandatory renewal was strongly agreed by 77.4% and 33.2% participants respectively.

Conclusion: We conclude that they all need the trainings at frequent interval to know about the importance of BLS, to gain confidence and to improve their skill which will help them in timely saving of many lives in as well as outside the hospital. This can be achieved if institutes help in conducting the BLS session regularly despite being already in curriculum.

Key words: Basic Cardiac Life Support; Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation; Resuscitations; CPR; Education