The current status of and factors affecting level of knowledge regarding basic life support measured in residents in Dokuz Eylul University Hospital

IV. SUMMARY The current status of and factors affecting level of knowledge regarding basic life support (BLS) measured in residents in Dokuz Eylul University Hospital (DEUH) SerkanSENER, MD Dokuz Eylul University, School of Medicine, Depatment of Emergeny Medicine, Izmir - Turkey Background: We aimed to evaluate the current status of and factors affecting level of knowledge regarding basic life support measured in residents in DEUH. Methods: Between December 2002 and February 2003, 300 residents working in DEUH were included to the study. A questionnaire comprising the demographic data and factors that may affect the level of BLS knowledge, was asked to be filled by the subjects. Each question was graded as one point. Residents' success levels were measured by acceptable level of performance (ALP) technique. Data collected from each questionnaire were entered in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, Version 11.0 programme and analyzed with Pearson %2 and one-way ANOVA tests. Results: Totally 300 residents who were working in 33 different departments in DEUH were graduated from 18 different universities in which five have department of emergency medicine. 176 of the 300 residents were men and mean age was 27,4±0,3. Mean correct answers was 8,77±0,20 through male residents, 9,30±0,23 through female residents and 8,99±0,15 over all. Subjects who answered nine or more questions correctly were regarded as succesful according to the mean calculated ALP score which was 8,76. Only 54,7 % (n=164) of the residents were found succesful. Conclusions: BLS success rates of the residents in DEUH showed, although BLS trainings carried out in medical schools in Turkey might be regarded as sufficient, BLS level of knowledge of the physicians was found insufficient due to the lack of post graduate or in-service training. Pre- and post-graduate BLS trainings need to be repeated more frequently to the residents. Keywords: basic life support, cardiopulmonary cerebral resuscitation, residents