The impact of CPR and AED training on healthcare professionals' self-perceived attitudes to performing resuscitation

To examine whether there were any changes in the attitudes among healthcare professionals to performing CPR from before to after training.Healthcare professionals from two Swedish hospitals were asked to answer a questionnaire before and after training. The questions were relating to physical and mental discomfort and attitudes to CPR. Statistical analysis used was generalized McNemar's test.Overall, there was significant improvement in 10 of 11 items, reflecting various aspects of attitudes to CPR.All groups of health care professionals (physicians, nurses, assistant nurses, and "others" = physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social welfare officers, psychologists, biomedical analysts) felt more secure in CPR knowledge after education. In other aspects, such as anxiety prior to a possible cardiac arrest, only nurses and assistant nurses improved.The concern about being infected, when performing mouth to mouth ventilation, was reduced with the most marked reduction in physicians (75%; P < 0.001).In this hospital-based setting, we found a positive outcome of education and training in CPR concerning healthcare professionals' attitudes to perform CPR. They felt more secure in their knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In some aspects of attitudes to resuscitation nurses and assistant nurses appeared to be the groups that were most markedly influenced. The concern of being infected by a disease was low.Cardiac arrest may occur anywhere in a hospital, and be discovered by any healthcare professional [1]. Although being difficult to prove, it is not unlikely that the attitude towards cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) among health care professionals is of importance for the chance of survival after cardiac arrest. Some of these professionals may be concerned about of the potential risks to themselves of starting CPR. To our knowledge, there has been no previous study on the effects of CPR training and education to attitudes in cardiopulmonary resuscitation,