Nurses' knowledge and practice regarding cardiac arrhythmia detected from electrocardiogram

Abstract

Background: Electrocardiogram is one of the most powerful diagnostic tools in modern medicine use to evaluate arrhythmias, with an estimated 300 million ECGs performed annually in the USA alone. Aim: The aim of this study to evaluate nurses' knowledge and practice regarding cardiac arrhythmia detected from Electrocardiogram. Methods: Tools of data collection are: Two tools were used as the following: Tool (I): Nurses' self-administered questionnaire, Tool 2 An observation checklist. Results: More than half of the studied nurses were females in age group from (17-24). About two thirds of the studied nurses were graduated from nursing institute, while only of them had a diploma in nursing. There was a statistically significant difference among the studied nurses knowledge, practices and ECG training courses. There was a negative correlation between nurses knowledge level, practices level and ECG training courses. Conclusion: Electrocardiography interpretation is very crucial for health care professionals. ECG is a non-invasive procedure which commonly formed in medicine and emergency departments. The results of present study showed that more than three quarters of the studied nurses had unsatisfactory knowledge level, while less than one quarter of them had satisfactory knowledge regarding cardiac arrhythmia detected from ECG.