ardiac arrest is an important acute emergency situation both in/out of the hospital setups and carries a high level of mortality risk, however, if early Basic life support (BLS) cardio pulmonary resuscitation is initiated, the survival rate can be substantially improved, the knowledge of BLS is a major determinant in the success of resuscitation and plays a vital role in the final outcome of acute emergency situations II.
A pre experimental one group pre test post test study was conducted on 30 youth studying in a selected college of Kottayam district from 29/01/2018 to 10/03/2018. The present study is intended to determine the effectiveness of the training programme on knowledge and skill regarding Basic Life Support among youth. The knowledge regarding Basic Life Support was assessed by structured questionnaire and skill was assessed by observation checklist.
The knowledge and skill score level were categorized as good, average and poor. Pre test was done to assess the knowledge and skill regarding Basic Life Support. The training programme was conducted for one hour duration including teaching and demonstration of adult Basic Life Support using a manikin, followed by practice session of 30 minutes for 3 consecutive days. Post test was done using same tools after 2 weeks.
The pre test and post test was done by using same questionnaire and checklist. The study showed that 33.4% of youth are in the age group between 18-19 years and 66.6% are in between 20-21 years. Majority of the youth (63.3%) are females and 36.7% are males (Table1). Pre test knowledge and skill score revealed that 86.7% of youth are having poor score regarding Basic Life Support and 13.3% are having average score (Table 2&3). The effect of training programme on knowledge and skill of youth was done by Wilcoxon signed rank test and found to be 5.01 and 4.76 respectively which are statistically significant at p=0.001 level. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient test showed a positive correlation between knowledge and skill significant at 0.01 level.
The findings of the present study shows that majority of youth (86.7 %) were having poor knowledge regarding Basic Life Support and 13.3% were having average knowledge and it is congruent with the findings of a study carried out in Florida that the most of the youth had 50% or below the passing scores on knowledge regarding Basic Life Support with a mean range of scores between 28% and 84%.
The findings of the present study shows that majority of youth (86.7 %) were having poor skill regarding Basic Life Support and 13.3% were having average skill. A similar study was conducted in high school students, that revealed 70.5% of students had poor skill regarding Basic Life Support.
Findings of present study reveals that there was a statistically significant (p <0.001) difference in the pre test and post test scores of knowledge and skill of youth regarding Basic Life Support signifying the effectiveness of training programme. The present study gains strength from a similar study done to assess the effectiveness of Basic Life Support training on knowledge of life saving skill among college students. The overall study findings revealed that there was significant increase in knowledge and skill of degree students on Basic Life Support technique.
The study result showed that correlation coefficient was 0.74 which showed a positive correlation between knowledge and skill of youth regarding Basic Life Support which was significant at p<0.01.
| Sample characteristics | f | % |
| Age in years | ||
| 18-19 | 10 | 33.4 |
| 20-21 | 20 | 66.6 |
| Above 21 | 0 | 0 |
| Gender | ||
| Male | 11 | 36.7 |
| Female | 19 | 63.3 |
| Knowledge | f | % |
| Good (19-28) | 0 | 0 |
| Average (10-18) | 4 | 13.3 |
| Poor (0-9) | 26 | 86.7 |
| Skill | f | % |
| Good (19-27) | 0 | 0 |
| Average (10-18) | 4 | 13.3 |
| Poor (0-9) | 26 | 86.7 |
| Group | Knowledge Scores | ||
| Mean rank | Sum of ranks | Z | |
| Pre test | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| Post test | 13.50 | 351.00 | 5.01*** |
| ***significant at .001 level | |||
| Group | Skill Scores | ||
| Mean rank | Sum of ranks | Z | |
| Pre test Post test | .00 14.5 | .00 406.00 | 4.76*** |
| ***significant at 0.001 level | |||
| Variable | ? |
| Knowledge Skill | 0.74** |
| IV. |
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