Awareness and Attitudes of University of Ibadan Freshmen towards Learning and Performing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Objectives: To assess the level of awareness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and the attitude of the University of Ibadan (UI) freshmen towards learning CPR, and performing CPR on cardiac arrest victims.

Methods: This research was a cross-sectional study. Between October and November 2014, questionnaires were administered to 370 first-year undergraduate students of UI to obtain information about their bio-data, awareness of CPR, and attitudes toward learning CPR, and performing CPR on cardiac arrest victims. Their participation was voluntary and anonymous. A total of 333 questionnaires were returned filled, out of which 4 were discarded because they were not properly filled. So only the data of 329 respondents were used. Analysis was done using the SPSS version 16 software.

Results: A total of 305 (92.7%) respondents had not received any training on how to perform CPR, 59 (17.9%) had witnessed situations where an individual collapsed and died, 282 (85.0%) showed positive attitude towards learning CPR, and 311 (94.5%) respondents were willing to rescue a cardiac arrest victims if they have the know-how of what to do.

Conclusion: The majority of the UI freshmen had never received any CPR training before, however the majority of them showed positive attitude towards learning CPR, and performing CPR. There is a need to introduce CPR training into the UI curriculum for the freshmen, as recommended by the Liaison Committee on Resuscitation.