Despite a fair to good perception of capnography, most nurses demonstrated low knowledge and limited clinical experience, indicating that educational interventions and policy changes are needed to improve capnography use in emergency resuscitation settings.
Most emergency nurses had low knowledge of capnography during cardiac arrest resuscitation.
Only a minority of emergency nurses reported any clinical experience using capnography.
Nurses' perceptions of capnography were distributed across poor, fair, and good categories, with no single dominant positive perception.
A weak but statistically significant correlation existed between nurses' knowledge of capnography and their prior clinical experience with it.
Capnography adoption remains limited in emergency settings in the North West Bank region despite its clinical value.
This research examined how well emergency nurses in North West Bank hospitals understood and used capnography — a monitoring tool that measures the carbon dioxide a patient exhales and provides real-time information about whether resuscitation efforts are working. The study surveyed 96 nurses across 7 government hospitals and found a significant gap: more than 80% of nurses had low knowledge about capnography, and only about one in three had ever actually used it in a clinical setting. Despite this lack of knowledge and hands-on experience, nurses' attitudes toward capnography were somewhat more positive — about 40% had a fair perception and nearly 23% had a good perception of the technology. The study also found that nurses who had some prior experience with capnography tended to have slightly better knowledge of it, though this relationship was weak. This suggests that exposure to the technology in practice may help build understanding, but that experience alone is not enough to ensure high knowledge levels across the nursing workforce. This research suggests that hospitals in this region need structured training programs and updated policies to improve nurses' familiarity with capnography. Since capnography is recognized as an important tool for improving patient safety during cardiac arrest resuscitation, the large knowledge gap identified here points to a potential area where better education could improve care outcomes for critically ill patients in emergency departments.
Zaid G, Toqan D, Aqtam I, Ayed A. (2026). Nurses' Perceptions of Using Capnography During Resuscitation of Patients in Emergency Department.. Critical care nursing quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1097/CNQ.0000000000000621