ABSTRACT

Objective:

We aimed to evaluate the level of assistant and intern doctors’ knowledge about basic and advanced life support.

Material and Methods:

In this study, the current knowledge of 357 assistant and intern doctors at the hospital of Cumhuriyet University was reviewed via a questionnaire of 40 questions about basic and advanced life support. The participants' consent was received before administering the questionnaire. The findings were reported in figures and percentages. While the Kruskal-Wallis Variance analysis test was used for statistical calculations, the chi-square test was used for statistical comparisons. p<0.05 was accepted as significant. This study consists of questions prepared about the recent changes in the guide for cardiopulmonary resuscitation by the American Heart Association (AHA) released in 2010.

Results:

This study weights the answers from both of the participant groups equally even though the practical experience of assistant doctors is greater than the interns’. The ratio of right answers to the questions about general knowledge of basic and advanced life support is found to be low in this particular study. However, assistant doctors aged between 20-30 achieve a higher rate of true answers compared to the other participant doctors.

Conclusions:

This study has concluded that the knowledge level of assistant and intern doctors is insufficient and not up-to-date. It has also shown that insufficient knowledge may cause danger, given the fact that basic and advanced life support cannot be applied effectively without correct and accurate information.