How Much Do We Know About Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation?

Objective: Resuscitation is a procedure which needs to be done with fullyequipped knowledge. In this study, we aimed to investigate how much the physicians knew about resuscitation and the current guidelines were applied during the resuscitation. Materials and Methods: A total of 134 physicians working in the training and research hospitals, the university hospitals and 112 emergency medical services. A survey including questions about the participants' resuscitation knowledge, age, specialty, the university graduated from and the number of cardiopulmonary resuscitations (CPR) carried out in a month was performed. The level of knowledge of the physicians working in the training and research hospitals, the university hospitals and 112 emergency medical services were compared. Results: We determined that, while 24.6% (n=33) of the participants applied the ILCOR protocols correctly, 38.8% (n=52) of them applied the protocols incorrectly or incompletely and 24.6% (n=33) of them did not know the protocols. The evaluation was performed according to the physician's work place and the best results were obtained from the university hospital physicians, but the success rate was achieved in only around 50%. This rate was even lower in the training and research hospital and 112 emergency medical services groups. Conclusion: By reviewing the cardiopulmonary resuscitation training system in Turkey, implementation of resuscitation protocols with more current information should be provided. We believe that it is necessary to establish the inservice training programs, including the emergency medical system, as a part of training for using current information in daily practice.