Knowledge of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation among Some Secondary School Students in Nigeria

Abstract

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation is indeed an important life-saving first aid skills practiced throughout the world. It is perhaps the only known effective method of keeping a victim of cardiac arrest alive long enough for definitive treatment to be delivered. When trained in CPR, children and adolescents can recognize the need for care and administer CPR and it has been established to be successful in saving victims life when effectively performed. This study adopted quasi-experimental design aimed at assessing the CPR knowledge among four purposively selected secondary schools in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State of Nigeria before and after training in CPR. Four hundred (400) students were drawn from the schools and copies of the self-administered questionnaire were given to the participants before and after the training in CPR to respond to. At the end of the exercise,.322 questionnaires were found to have been properly filled, giving a response rate of 80.5%. The findings revealed that the level of pre-training knowledge was 8.9% compared to post training knowledge of 88.6%. The knowledge difference between pre and post training in CPR was statistically significant (P <0.05). It was concluded that Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation training was possible among Nigerian students and should be incorporated in Nigerian school curriculum in line with best practices as recommended by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation.

Keywords: CPR, Knowledge, Secondary school students, Nigeria