Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in Adult and Pediatric age group among Medical Professionals.

Background:Timely and effective CPR improves survival chances during cardiac arrest. Medical doctors play a significant role in delivering healthcare including emergencies such as cardiac arrest. Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and practice of CPR in adult and paediatric age group among medical professionals. Method: The study was cross-sectional comprising of 750 participants, drawn with convenience sampling from phone registry and email databases. CPR Questionnaire consisting of 25 question were sent to them either electronically or were asked to fill out hard copy whichever was convenient to the respondents and analyzed. Results:Participants included medical interns 180 (24%), MBBS graduates 126 (16.8%), Post graduates 192 (25.6%), Faculties in medical colleges 138 (18.4%) and Specialists in Private Hospitals 114 (15.2%). Out of this sample 246 (32.8%) has BLS certification and 504 (67.2%) had not attended any BLS course. Almost all participants (97.6%) knew about the CPR abbreviation, 79.2 % knew purpose of CPR, 77.6 % answered correctly for question on compression depth in adults and 78.4% knew correct rate of compressions, while 55.2% and 58.4% had knowledge about the depth in infants and child respectively. About 60.8% and 64.8% knew about the compression to ventilation ratio for single and two rescuers in pediatric victims. About 64.8% knew how to do CPR in pregnant patients and fair amount of about 70.4% had correct knowledge about AED use. Conclusion: CPR knowledge among medical professionals is fair although updated knowledge especially among the newly qualified physicians should be improved for better practice and outcomes during cardiac arrest. We would recommend that Institutions must constantly update their faculties, trainees and students through BLS courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]