Knowledge of Cardiac Emergency Drugs and its Application in Clinical Practice among Undergraduate Students of a College of Nursing in Karnataka

A nurse who graduates from the student period is the one who is going to turn out to be a clinical nurse specialist, working in any setup to handle emergencies. But how far does the curriculum focuses on the very basic critical care to handle emergencies. It is well known fact that sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the world and most of them die before reaching the hospital or in the emergency room. During such situations where time plays a crucial role in the recovery, even a second delay can further decline the chances of recovery. Hence is imperative to note, whether the student nurses are really competent to handle cardiac emergencies? The current scenario shows that nurses constitute the largest single group of health care professionals in any health care organization. The very nature of their work brings them closest to the population they serve. Due to their person to person interaction, Nurses are expected to be mainly responsible for the efficient and effective management of patient care services. More importantly, it must be ensured that they are adequately trained in terms of cardiac emergency drug management which is a crucial step in a patient's survival in cardiac emergencies. The present study emphasized on the existing knowledge and application skills on cardiac emergency drugs, which clearly showed that the students require further input into their knowledge and practice. Hence, errors in medications are made whether minor or major and even to the extent of losing a person's life. Therefore students' lack of complete knowledge and practice can have adverse impact on the quality of care and also threat to patient's life.