Knowledge, Attitude and Usage of Pulse Oximeter among Pediatric Resident Doctors

Background: Pulse oximetry is a simple, affordable, non-invasive method for the assessment of patients’ oxygen saturation. Given the importance and wide use of pulse oximeter it is currently regarded as the fifth vital sign. Despite the importance of pulse oximeter, a proportion of clinicians are unaware of its mechanism of use, advantages, and limitations. Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude and usage of pediatrics resident doctors towards the pulse oximeter, and to assess the factors affecting them. Methods: This is an analytic cross-sectional study conducted among pediatrics resident doctors in Sudan Medical Specialization Board during the period of January 2022 to May 2022. A minimal sample size of 269 was calculated and simple random sampling was used to select participants. Data was collected through a questionnaire assessing the socio-demographic characteristics, training on pulse oximeter, availability of pulse oximeter, usage of pulse oximeter, knowledge regarding pulse oximeter, and attitude towards pulse oximeter. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 26, and p-values less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results: A total of 274 participants were involved in the study. 168 didn’t receive training on the use of pulse oximeter. A good number of the participants were classified as having good knowledge (48.5%), while 56.9% were classified as having a positive attitude. Pulse oximeter was used routinely by 87.2% of the participants to record the saturation of the critically-ill children. Frequency of participants with good knowledge was significantly higher among senior resident doctors compared to the junior ones (P=0.017). Conclusion: Although the use of pulse oximeter among pediatric residents is good, their knowledge regarding its uses or drawbacks is sub-optimal. Thus the implementation of a training program will greatly improve the right and safe practice of pulse oximetry by pediatric residents.