Effectiveness of Simulation Based Education on Nurses Knowledge Regarding Paediatric Basic Life Support.

Abstract

Background: Pediatric basic life support (BLS) involves administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to children experiencing cardiac arrest without the use of equipment, relying on bag-mask ventilation or barrier devices until advanced life support (ALS) is available.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of simulation-based education on nurses’ knowledge in Pediatric Basic Life Support (PBLS).  .

Method: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was carried out with 50 nurses from pediatric wards of two general hospitals in Al_Najaf City, Iraq, fromSeptember16,2023,toJanuary20,2024.

Study subject: A convenience sample of 50 nurses was randomly assigned to two groups of 25, to be treated as intervention or control groups. The intervention group received simulation-based educational program while the control group received no intervention. Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated.

Data collection tools: A structured self-administered questionnaire with two parts related to socio-demographic characteristics and nurses' knowledge of paediatric basic life support. The education passed through 3 phases e, pre-test, implementation and post-test phase.

Results: The study's findings showed that the implementation of a simulation education program led to an improvement in the knowledge of the study group .

Conclusions: The study concluded that simulation based education improved nurses' knowledge related pediatric basic life support and the study provides aline to enhance the simulation integration as active education strategies to develop nurses' knowledge in applying clinical skills.

Recommendations: Further studies are recommended to evaluate the impact of simulation on nurses' education outcomes, providing more evidence that simulation would be beneficial for nurses' improvement. The researcher also suggests encouraging nurses to improve their knowledge and performances through increased participation in Basic Life Support (BLS) and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) courses, at least every six months.