Background: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation training is mandatory for nursing staff,
whereas the ability to respond quickly and effectively to a cardiac arrest situation rests on
nursing competence. Aim: to evaluate the effectiveness of structured cardiopulmonary
resuscitation training program on nursing' competence. Subjects& Methods: A quasiexperimental
design was used to fulfil the aim of the study. Subjects: A convenience
sample of 60 critical care nurses who were recruited from critical care units. Study setting:
This study was carried out at five critical care units affiliated to Minia University Hospitals,
Egypt. Tools of data collection: were; First Tool: “Structured Questionnaire" it consists of
(two parts): Part I: Nurses' personal data such as age, and gender; Part II: Nurses'
knowledge assessment about resuscitation process and its role in resuscitation, Second
Tool: Observational checklist for assessment nurses' performance of resuscitation.
Results: There was a highly statistically significant difference in critical care nurses'
knowledge and performance pre- and post- structured cardiopulmonary resuscitation
training program. also, there was no statistically significant correlation between all personal
characteristics for studied nurses and their total performance score pre- and post- structured
cardiopulmonary resuscitation training program except in a studied sample's age categories.
Conclusion: Improvement was obvious in the level of knowledge and performance of CPR
of critical care nurses under study after attending structured cardiopulmonary resuscitation
training program. Recommendation: Structured CPR training program should be available
to train critical care nurses.