A study of emergency medical technicians' cognitive and practical skills in airway management and its relationship with some related factors in emergency medical centers selected in Isfahan in the year 2015-2016

Abstract

Introduction: Prehospital care is a fundamental and decisive component in the treatment of emergency patients. In accidents, the first contact with emergency patients is by emergency prehospital staff. Hence, they must have sufficient knowledge and skills in all fields with airway management been one of the important measures. Various factors are involved in emergency personnel's knowledge and skills whereas the evidences show that staff performance is not desirable. This study aimed to investigate emergency medical technicians' cognitive and practical skills in airway management and its relationship with some related factors. Materials and Methods: This study is a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical research. Sixty-eight emergency medical technicians were randomly selected by simple convenience sampling method. The tools used for data collection were personal and demographic characteristics form, cognitive skills inventory, and clinical skills checklist, including five skills in airway management. Face and content validities of tools were investigated and verified by ten experts and lecturers. The data were collected using personal and demographic characteristics form, cognitive skills inventory, and filling out the clinical skills checklist and observing the skills performed by technicians and then analyzed by SPSS version 20 software. Results: The results showed that, in airway management, 49.2 of technicians had good cognitive skills and 81 of them had practical skills. There was a direct relationship between the score of cognitive skills and the score practical skills (P < 0.001; r = 0.556). Conclusion: Although emergency medical technicians' practical skills were in good range, they got low scores in inserting the laryngeal mask airway, and it is required that they are trained in this field.