Knowledge and Practice of Basic Life Support among Health Workers in the Upper Denkyira East Municipality of Ghana

Abstract

Background: The medical procedure known as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can save a person's life after a heart attack. Additionally, it is done to manually preserve full brain function while additional measures are taken to recover spontaneous breathing and normal unprompted blood circulation in cardiac arrest. Methods: The study's goal was to assess the knowledge and practice of basic life support among health workers in the Upper Denkyira East Municipality, Central Region of Ghana. The study used cross-sectional design. The study respondents were chosen using a simple random sampling method which included 322 nurses, doctors, physician assistants and midwives working in the Municipality. Data were collected using a standardized questionnaire. Data were analysed with SPSS version 25 and summarized using frequencies and percentages. Pearson's chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression were used to examine associations at a 5% significance level. Results: The study found that while all health care workers had heard about BLS, they only had an average of 68.9 percent understanding of basic life support and just 16.5 percent had practiced CPR before. Also, there was significant association between sociodemographic characteristics (sex, grade, educational level, department and work experience) of the health workers and the practice of basic life support (p-value=<0.001). Conclusion: The study concludes that if health workers are given more training and support, the knowledge and practice of basic life support would be increased in the Upper Denkyira East Municipality.