Nursing Staff in Emergency Departments, Intensive Care Units, and Cardiology Units: Demographic Profile and Knowledge in Advanced Life Support Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the daily practice in the assessment and management of patients with cardiopulmonary arrest and as a consequence emergency guidelines have been issued by the European Resuscitation Council. ED and ICU, due to their statistically frequent involvement with such incidents, must be aware of the change in protocols and able to balance the risk and the possible benefit for the patient.

Purpose: To investigate the possible correlation of the demographic profile of the nursing staff, working in EDs, ICUs and CCUs, regarding the cognitive background of advanced life support, both in the directives that were in force before, and in those issued as an emergency during the pandemic.

Material and Method: The present research study is a cross-sectional descriptive correlation study, which was conducted online exclusively among the nursing staff of the National Health System of Greece, during the months of January-March 2022.

Results: Adequate knowledge background was shown to have only 13.7% of the participants regarding the guidelines before the pandemic and 12.7% during the pandemic. A statistically significant positive correlation emerged between master's and doctoral studies, work department, attendance of an educational program and the incidence of cardiopulmonary arrest, as it pertained to the protocol that was in force before the pandemic. Accordingly, regarding the emergency guidelines related to the pandemic, the factors that demonstrated a strong statistical relationship with a high level of knowledge were older age, permanent employment, long-term professional experience, as well as attending an educational program and the frequency of dealing with interruption incidents .

Conclusions:  The nursing staff of EDs and Intensive Care Units are very often involved in situations of advanced life support and resuscitation, so by definition they must have a sufficient level of knowledge and be up-to-date with the current guidelines. The search for their demographics and the possible correlation of some factors with the cognitive background will help in future improvement.

Keywords: nurse AND in-hospital arrest, in-hospital arrest, Advanced Life Support, Covid-19