Healthcare professionals' knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding
defibrillator use in pediatric emergency and intensive care clinics
Abstract
Purpose: Successful resuscitation and early defibrillation are critical
in survival after in- or out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest. This
study aimed to determine the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the
pediatric healthcare professionals about the defibrillator use and to
offer solutions if there was room for improvement. Procedures: This was
a multicenter survey study. Findings: The study included 716 healthcare
professionals with an average age of 30.1 ± 5.8 years; 50% (n=358) were
pediatric residents and 41.3% (n=296) had less than three years of
professional experience. Self-declared level of knowledge about
defibrillation/cardioversion was low-to-medium for 66.5% (n=476);
60.8% (n=435) had never practiced these procedures and 22.2% (n=159)
had never received any training about defibrillator use. There was a
significant relationship between professional experience and the
proportion of participants who correctly responded to the first-shock
dose for defibrillation but not for cardioversion. Conclusion:
Professional experience is crucial in the correct defibrillator use.
However, the defibrillation/cardioversion procedures are prone to errors
since they are not commonly applied in day to day practice. An ideal
approach to improve the experience of personnel could be to use
practical training with case-based simulations and to educate the
personnel about the features of the defibrillators available in their
clinics.