Knowledge of basic life support (BLS) amongst dental practitioners

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiac and respiratory arrests are amongst the most common emergencies encountered in a hospital setting with grave consequences but the high mortality associated with them can be easily prevented most of the times by some simple manoeuvres and skills.

Material and Methods: A total of 100 questionnaires were filled from the dental practitioners of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The answer keys for the core questions on knowledge of BLS were generated using Basic life support manual from American Heart Association (AHA).

Results: 64% of the dental practitioners had a BLS score of 50% or above while 36% had a score of less than 50%. Majority of the practitioners had knowledge about the rate of cardiac compression during BLS delivery while the question answered least correctly was the sequence of BLS components.

Conclusions: Within the limitations of the present study, it may be concluded that there is an absolute need for structured training of BLS. This will go a long way in improving the outcome of BLS delivery by the dental practitioners.