Our objective was to compare the impact of a training program in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the knowledge and skills of in-service and preservice nurses at prespecified time points. This repeated-measures quasiexperimental study was conducted in the pediatric emergency and ICU of a tertiary care teaching hospital between January and March 2011. We assessed the baseline knowledge and skills of nursing staff (in-service nurses) and final year undergraduate nursing students (preservice nurses) using a validated questionnaire and a skill checklist, respectively. The participants were then trained on pediatric CPR using standard guidelines. The knowledge and skills were reassessed immediately after training and at 6 weeks after training. A total of 74 participants—28 in-service and 46 preservice professionals—were enrolled. At initial assessment, in-service nurses were found to have insignificant higher mean knowledge scores (6.6 versus 5.8,P=0.08) while the preservice nurses had significantly higher skill scores (6.5 versus 3.2,P<0.001). Immediately after training, the scores improved in both groups. At 6 weeks however, we observed a nonuniform decline in performance in both groups—in-service nurses performing better in knowledge test (10.5 versus 9.1,P=0.01) and the preservice nurses performing better in skill test (9.8 versus 7.4,P<0.001). Thus, knowledge and skills of in-service and preservice nurses in pediatric CPR improved with training. In comparison to preservice nurses, the in-service nurses seemed to retain knowledge better with time than skills.
Comparison of the effects of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training through modified team based learning and traditional method on knowledge and skills of nursing students in the College of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz, 2012
