Effects of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for Mozambican nursing students in a low-resource setting: An intervention study

Background: There is an increasing incidence of cardiovascular diseases in Africa. Nurses' ability to undertake cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can significantly impact the survival of patients who experience cardiac arrest. Objectives: We aimed to identify the effects of CPR training among Registered Nurse-Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN-BSN) students in Mozambique. Design: A one-group pretest-posttest repeated-measures quasi-experimental design. Setting: Auditorium of a general hospital and 2 Anne manikins, but no automatic external defibrillator. Participants: Thirty-two RN-BSN students. Methods: Students' attitudes and self-efficacy on CPR were measured by self-reported questionnaires three times (before, immediately after, and 20 weeks post intervention). Data were analyzed by the paired t-test and repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results: Attitude and self-efficacy scores of students on CPR significantly increased immediately after CPR training, but decreased 20 weeks after the intervention (p <.001). Sociodemographic characteristics did not significantly differ throughout the measurements of attitude or self-efficacy. Conclusions: CPR manikin training positively affected attitude and self-efficacy in CPR among RN-BSN nursing students immediately, but not at 20 weeks, after the training. There is a need for research to repeatedly quantify parameters in a controlled study at different intervals and develop an instructor-training course customized to Mozambique.