Background: Immediately after birth, approximately 10% of newborns need interventions to facilitate lung recruitment and begin spontaneous respiration. A full resuscitation procedure is required by < 1% of newborns. Because you can't always predict the need to perform CPR, at every birth someone trained to conduct such operations should be in attendance. The aim of this study was to investigate the understanding of neonatal resuscitation at birth among emergency medical personnel.
Methods: This study was conducted in 2012 among a group of 270 people (doctors, nurses and paramedics) working in teams of emergency medical services in Poland. The study involved the issue of a questionnaire, checking knowledge of neonatal resuscitation. Results. 79% of respondents knew the time limits for the use of the term 'newborn'. All respondents had knowledge of the order of proceedings in CPR (76-100%) and the ratio of compressions to ventilation during neonatal resuscitation (76-100%). The group of nurses, compared to doctors and paramedics, knew very little about the following topics: energy shock (44% vs. 100% vs. 100%), tidal volume (24% vs. 92% vs. 78%), and the dose of sodium bicarbonate (32% vs. 96% vs. 87%).
Conclusions: The best prepared professional groups regarding newborn resuscitation are doctors and paramedics. The incomplete knowledge found in nurses should lead to intensified training in this occupational group.