Knowledge of Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Technician about Endotracheal Intubation: A Manikin Study

Abstract

Background: Pre-hospital emergency is an important part of the health-care system helping for critically ill patients in the life-threatening conditions by endotracheal intubation, preventing complications and mortality. The present study was conducted to determine the knowledge of pre-hospital emergency staff about the endotracheal intubation. Methods and Materials: This was an analytical cross-sectional study performed on 70 pre-hospital staff in Rasht. Samples were obtained through census. Data collection tools included a researcher-made questionnaire with three parts: Demographic and job characteristics with 14 questions and knowledge questionnaire, with 15 questions. The reliability coefficient of the knowledge questionnaire was 0.87 and the interclass correlation coefficient was 0.86. Kolmogorov-Smirnov, mean and standard deviation (in the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests) were used. The collected data were entered into SPSS 24 software and analyzed. Results: The majority of study participants were in the age groups of 26-30 and 36-40 years. Regarding education, the majority had associate and bachelor's degree. The findings of the pre-hospital emergency department staff's knowledge and status of the endotracheal tube insertion based on individual and occupational variables showed that the knowledge score based on work experience in the health system (p=0.05) and having unsuccessful intubation at six months (p=0.009) was statistically different, so that employees with higher work experience were less aware of endotracheal intubation and employees who have had a history of unsuccessful intubation for the past six months have had a higher level of knowledge. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, the knowledge of pre-hospital emergency personnel was in moderate level and needs educational programs to reach the optimum level.