摘要
BACKGROUND: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and anxiety pertaining to basic life support(BLS) and medical emergencies among interns in dental colleges of Mangalore city, Karnataka, India.METHODS: The study subjects comprised of interns who volunteered from the four dental colleges. The knowledge and attitude of interns were assessed using a 30-item questionnaire prepared based on the Basic Life Support Manual from American Heart Association and the anxiety of interns pertaining to BLS and medical emergencies were assessed using a State-Trait Anxiety Inventory(STAI) Questionnaire. Chi-square test was performed on SPSS 21.0(IBM Statistics, 2012) to determine statistically signifi cant differences(P<0.05) between assessed knowledge and anxiety.RESULTS: Out of 183 interns, 39.89% had below average knowledge. A total of 123(67.21%) reported unavailability of professional training. The majority(180, 98.36%) felt the urgent need of training in basic life support procedures. Assessment of stress showed a total of 27.1% participants to be above highstress level. Comparison of assessed knowledge and stress was found to be insignifi cant(P=0.983).CONCLUSION: There was an evident lack of knowledge pertaining to the management of medical emergencies among the interns. As oral health care providers moving out to the society, a focus should be placed on the training of dental interns with respect to Basic Life Support procedures.
BACKGROUND: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and anxiety pertaining to basic life support (BLS) and medical emergencies among interns in dental colleges of Mangalore city, Karnataka, India. METHODS: The study subjects comprised of interns who volunteered from the four dental colleges. The knowledge and attitude of interns were assessed using a 30-item questionnaire prepared based on the Basic Life Support Manual from American Heart Association and the anxiety of interns pertaining to BLS and medical emergencies were assessed using a State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) Questionnaire. Chi-square test was performed on SPSS 21.0 (IBM Statistics, 2012) to determine statistically significant differences (P〈0.05) between assessed knowledge and anxiety. RESULTS: Out of 183 interns, 39.89% had below average knowledge. Atotal of 123 (67.21%) reported unavailability of professional training. The majority (180, 98.36%) felt the urgent need of training in basic life support procedures. Assessment of stress showed a total of 27.1% participants to be above high- stress level. Comparison of assessed knowledge and stress was found to be insignificant (P=0.983). CONCLUSION: There was an evident lack of knowledge pertaining to the management of medical emergencies among the interns. As oral health care providers moving out to the society, a focus should be placed on the training of dental interns with respect to Basic Life Support procedures.