Health professionals’ cardiopulmonary resuscitation capability at emergency departments in tertiary hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2022

Immediate and efficient Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) increases both survival rate and post-arrest quality of life. Continual updated knowledge and practices of healthcare professionals regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation were crucial to save lives. In limited resource countries like Ethiopia, there is scarce data describing the basic knowledge and practice of CPR among Healthcare providers (HCP).

To assess health care professionals’ knowledge, practice, and associated factors toward CPR.

Institutional-based descriptive survey study design was used. The study was conducted from March to April 2022 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, A total of 163 individuals were randomly selected from Tikur Anbesa Hospital. St. Paul’s Hospital and Yekatit 12 Hospital. The data was collected using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. The descriptive statistics frequency, percentage, median, and range were computed. Inferential statistics Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were analyzed. Ethical approval was received from the Institutional Review Board.

Out of 162 respondents, 81(50%) were nurses followed by 59 (36.4%) residents. The participants’ ages ranged from 24 to 49 years, median age of 29 years. More than half, 89(54.9%) of participants were female. Ninety (55.6%) participants had good knowledge of CPR. The majority of 126(79.6%) responded correctly about chest compression. Occupation type (AOR = 3.15, 95% CI 1.193–5.834) and participating in mock (AOR = 8.33, 95% CI 1.53–45.45) were associated with knowledge of health care professionals, Routinely reviewing data (COR = 3.3, 95% CI 1.41–7.82), and time of participating in mock codes (COR = 5.05, 95% CI 1.43–17.85) were associated with practice of health care professionals.

In conclusion, the level of knowledge and practice of health professionals towards CPR was suboptimal. Having a higher educational level and participating in mock codes were associated with good knowledge, whereas gender, routinely reviewing the data, and participating in mock codes were associated with good practice. Therefore; healthcare professionals must continuously improve their knowledge and skills in CPR for the sake of professionalism and patient safety.