Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Planned Teaching Programme (PTP) on Knowledge and Practices Regarding Defibrillation among Staff Nurses Working in Selected Units of Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

Background: When �Sudden Cardiac Arrest� occurs, the entire heart stops or is rendered ineffective in pumping a sufficient amount of blood to supply the organs. That is why people who suffer cardiac arrest, need emergency medical treatment. Advanced cardiac life support, or advanced cardiovascular life support, often referred to by its abbreviation as ACLS, refers to a set of clinical algorithms for the urgent treatment of cardiac arrest, stroke, myocardial infarction, and other life-threatening cardiovascular emergencies. Nurses, very frequently, have to encounter the cases of sudden cardiac arrests. They are the primary emergency care givers in the hospital and thus they need to be knowledgeable and competent enough regarding the usage of defibrillator because the chances of rescue or fatality are dependent on a matter of few minutes. Aim: The main aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of Planned Teaching Programme on knowledge and practices regarding defibrillation among staff nurses working in selected intensive care units of Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh (H. P). Methods and materials: Quantitative approach was adopted using the pre-experimental design. The sample size was 60 staff nurses working in selected of Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla, H. P. They were selected using convenience sampling method. Ethical approval was taken from the concerned departments. The structured tool consisting of socio-demographic variables, knowledge questionnaire and practice check-list was prepared with extensive search from various sources and validated by various experts. After conducting pre-test, PTP was administered to the participants. Post-test was conducted after one week. After post-test information booklet was distributed to all the participants. Statistical analysis of the acquired data was done by calculating mean, median, mean percentage, mean difference, standard deviation, t test and chi square test. Result: The results of the present study reveal that considering the knowledge, in pre-test, maximum participants 51 (85 %) had average knowledge, 5 (8.3 %) participants had poor knowledge and 4 (6.7 %) participants had poor knowledge regarding defibrillation. In post-test, maximum participants 34 (56.7 %) had good knowledge, 26 (43.3 %) had average knowledge and no participant, that means 0 (0 %) had poor knowledge regarding defibrillation. In case of practices, in pre-test, 56 (93.3 %) participants expressed good practices whereas 4 (6.7 %) participant expressed poor practices regarding defibrillation. In post-test, all, i. e.60 (100 %) expressed good practices and nobody, i. e.0 (0 %) expressed poor practices regarding defibrillation. Results shows that planned teaching programme was effective in terms of improving knowledge and practices staff nurses regarding defibrillation. Conclusion: The study findings showed that the mean post-test knowledge and practice score was higher than the mean pre-test knowledge and practice score. Hence, it can be concluded that the planned teaching programme was effective in improving the knowledge and practices of the Staff Nurses regarding defibrillation.