Knowledge, Experience and Awareness of Anesthesia Technicians in Our Country About Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) Devices: Survey Study

Background/Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, experience and awareness of anesthesia technicians about Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) devices. METHODS: This study is a cross-sectional-descriptive study. The population of our research consists of people who graduated as Anesthesia Technicians in Turkey. The online survey form contains a total of 28 questions, 8 of which are sociodemographic. The data was collected online between 05.01.2024-20.01.2024. The acquired analyzes were performed with IBM SPSS version 20.0 program. RESULTS: The total number of anesthesia technicians/technicians and students graduating by 2023 in Turkey is about 63763 people. With this number of graduates, a sample group of 382 people was predicted with a 95% confidence interval and a margin of error of 0.05. A total of 392 people were reached. The average age was 28±7.72 years. 71.9% of the participants were female, 64% were single, 48.2% had been working between 1-5 years. 27.8% of the participants received First Aid Training, 20.4% received AED training, 26.5% used AED, 39.3% reported that AED device should be used by anesthesia technicians, 79.8% reported that AED device should be available in the hospital. CONCLUSION: In the result of this study, it was determined that anesthesia technician(s) had limited knowledge about the AED device and its application, and those who got first aid training did not apply AEDs in training and on patients. It is also thought that it may be useful to have AED devices in hospitals. It is thought that trainings can be organized to increase the knowledge of anesthesia technicians/technicians about the AED device, and the AED device can be kept in the hospital, thus survival rates can be increased by early defibrillation of patients.