Capability of emergency nurses for electrocardiogram interpretation
Jonathan Ka-Ming Ho1, Caroline Hau-Yee Yau2, Chi-Yip Wong3
1School of Nursing and Health Studies, The Open University of Hong Kong, 30 Good Shepherd Street, Homantin, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
International Emergency Nursing
|December 28, 2020
Summary
Emergency nurses demonstrated fair electrocardiogram interpretation skills, with many unable to identify common heart blocks. Enhanced training is recommended to improve recognition of potentially fatal cardiac conditions.
Area of Science:
- Emergency Medicine
- Cardiology
- Nursing Education
Background:
- Electrocardiogram (ECG) is crucial for diagnosing chest pain.
- Assessing emergency nurses' ECG interpretation skills is vital for patient care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the ECG interpretation capability of emergency nurses in Hong Kong.
- To identify factors associated with ECG interpretation proficiency.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional descriptive survey of 96 emergency nurses.
- Utilized a 10-question self-developed questionnaire for ECG interpretation assessment.
Main Results:
- Mean score was 7.7 ± 1.8; only 12.5% answered all questions correctly.
- Significant difficulty in recognizing heart blocks (first-degree: 74.0%, second-degree type I: 52.1%, third-degree: 39.6%).
- ECG training, nursing experience, and ED experience correlated with higher scores.
Conclusions:
- Emergency nurses' ECG interpretation skills were fair, necessitating improvement.
- Targeted training is essential to enhance recognition of critical heart blocks for timely treatment.
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