Perceived Clinical Competency and Associated Factors of Basic Life Support (BLS) among Nurses Working in University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia, 2020

Introduction: Competency in nursing is vital to safe patient care. Nurses are usually the first responders in cases of in hospital cardiac arrest. Their competence in Basic Life Support (BLS) is important in improving patient outcomes. Basic Life Support (BLS), a key component of the chain of survival decreases the arrest.

Objective: The study aimed to assess perceived clinical competency towards Basic Life Support (BLS) and associated factors among nurses working at university of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital in Northwest Ethiopia.

Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from March-May, 2020 among nurses who are working in university of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital. Systematic random sampling method was used to recruit study participant. A pretested structured selfadministered questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was entered using EPI info version 7.2.1 statistical software and analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical package. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were also carried out to see the effect of each independent variable on the dependent variable.

Results: More than half of the study participants were male 135 (57.7%), one hundred forty five (62.0%) participants were single. Three fourth of the study participants 172 (73.5%) perceived themselves as highly competent while 62 (26.5%) had low perception towards BLS. Among the 234 nurses, the majority of the study participants 177 (75.6%) had poor knowledge. Based on the multivariate regression to identify associated factors, three variables (clinical work experience, duration of working in the current area and average monthly income) were significantly associated with nurses’ perceived clinical competence towards BLS.

Conclusions: The overall perception of nurses towards BLS was high. Income, clinical work experience and duration of working in current area were factors significantly associated with perception of nurses towards BLS.

Author(s): Mengistu Abebe1*, Ambaye Dejen2, Bewuket Tadesse2 and Biks Liyew2

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