Factors Associated with Basic Life Support Knowledge among Resource-Limited Hospital Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Study in North-Western Nigeria

Background: Basic life support (BLS) is a component of life-saving intervention for cardiac arrest patients. In addition to factors related to sociodemographic, and work characteristics, the level of BLS knowledge and skills nurses possess is a critical determinant of whether cardiac arrest patients in the care of nurses can survive. Objective: To assess the BLS knowledge level and its associated factors among resource-limited hospital nurses in north-western Nigeria. Methodology: A cross-sectional study of 470 nurses conducted in seven referral hospitals in north-western Nigeria between May and July 2021. A stratified simple random sampling done based on the population size of nurses in each of the selected wards. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Results: Out of 470 nurses, 53.4% had poor BLS knowledge scores. Variables such as age, current place of work, and duration of training with p<0.25 were investigated further in multiple logistic regression. Only nurses with more than 5-year BLS/CPR training duration were 1.907 times more likely to have good BLS/CPR knowledge than those who were not trained (AOR = 1.907, 95% CI: 1.016, 3.577, p = 0.044). Conclusions: Only one factor shows significance association, with the majority of nurses' revealing poor BLS/CPR knowledge which remains a public health concern, especially in a limited resource setting. Implication is that nurses are unable to provide good BLS in the event of a cardiac arrest emergency. Further study is needed on a larger scale to assess other factors for an effective survival outcome among cardiac arrest victims.