Critical Care Nurses' Competency Regarding Early Prediction and Interpretation of Life-Threatening Dysrhythmias: Life – Saving Opportunity

Background: Life-threatening dysrhythmia, especially the ventricular, is one of these
conditions that if not predicted and treated promptly can cost a patient's life. Also, it
remains one of the most common causes of sudden death in critically ill patients. Early
prediction of life-threatening – dysrhythmias can be considered as a life–saving
opportunity for critically ill patients (Maurice et al., 2017; Dinnah, 2018). Aims: aims
of the current study were to assess the critical care nurses' competency (knowledge)
towards early prediction and interpretation of life-threatening dysrhythmias and to
identify the obstacles that prevent nurses from acquiring competency regarding the
early prediction and interpretation of life-threatening dysrhythmias. Methods: A
descriptive cross-sectional study design was recruited to conduct the study. Data was
collected from a convenient sample of 100 nurses working in critical care settings at
Main University Hospital. A self-reported three-part- questionnaire using a paper
pencil was used to collect the data of this study. Results: the result of the current study
showed that critical care nurses had a very low level of competency required for early
prediction and interpretation of life-threatening dysrhythmias (75% of the participants
failed to identify or determine the types of dysrhythmia). Moreover, nearly three fourth
of nurses did not attend any educational training about dysrhythmias. Significant
correlations were found between nurses’ competency, level of education, and nurses’
position in the critical care units [(most nurses who failed to answer all questions were
diploma graduate (85.5) and (excellent knowledge score was significantly higher in
staff nurses than other positions although their frequency was relatively low
(MCp.001)]. However, there was no significant correlation existed between the level
of nurses' competency and other variables such as age, sex marital status. Finally, four
obstacles were identified preventing the acquiring of required competency.
Conclusions: The present study concluded that critical care nurses have a drastic low
level of knowledge concerning the competency of early prediction and interpretation of
life-threatening dysrhythmias. Moreover, significant correlations were found between
nurses' competency, level of education, and their position in critical care units.
However, there was no significant correlation between the nurses' competency and
other variables such as age, sex, and marital status more than three-quarters of the
nurses did not attend any training related to dysrhythmia. Finally, four factors were
identified by the nurses as obstacles for acquiring competency of early prediction and
interpretation of life-threatening dysrhythmias.