Nurses Competencies of Electrocardiogram Interpretation in Emergency Settings: A Literature Review

Abstract

Considering the increasing number of cardiovascular diseases around the world, early diagnosis and easy accesibility are required to appropriate treatment in order  to reduce mortality rate and to prevent heart disorders.  Electrocardiogram (ECG) is the most widely diagnostic tool that used to detect electrical and muscular functions of the heart.  Nurses, as a part of the emergency services team, are the most number of health workers in the hospital with high interaction to patients, so the ability of nurses who are capable in interpreting electrocardiogram is urgently  needed to provide accurate interpretation during emergency situation. The goal of this literature review is to is to evaluate the nurses competencies of electrocardiogram interpretation in emergency settings. A review of the literature was undertaken using the online databases: PubMed, Science direct,  Research Gate and  Google scholar. Search terms were 'electrocardiogram or ECG', ' competency or capability', ‘nurses’and 'emergency' A total of 8 articles from 2016-2021 used in this literature review were quantitative research, 7 of which were cross sectional studies while one was a quasi-experimental. Inductive content analysis was carried out to analyse and categorise the data. From eight studies selected, it was found that three articles showed a lack of emergency nurses’ competence in electrocardiogram interpretation, two articles indicated that above half of nurses has low and moderate competence, one article presented 54% has ability in interpreting electrocardiogram while only one article inidicated the result that emergency nurses has good competence (93%) respectively. The competence in electrocardiogram  interpretation  of emergency nurses are still lack, thus, continuous training is urgently needed.