Journal article
Nurse educators' expectations, training, and assessments of electrocardiogram interpretation among Australian acute care nurses: a national survey
European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, Vol.24(7), pp.1077-1086
2025
PMID: 40344016
Abstract
Aims
To explore nurse educators’ expectations, training, and assessments of electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation among nurses in Australian acute care settings.
Methods
A national cross-sectional multi-method online survey was conducted from March to June 2024. A researcher-developed survey was used containing 38 questions across four sections with a final open-ended question. Descriptive analysis was conducted.
Results
A total of 230 participants responded to the survey and 132 were included in the final data analysis. Approximately 96% of the participants had high expectations on nurses’ competency in ECG interpretation; however, appropriately 50% of the participants perceived nurses as being comfortable with caring for cardiac-monitored patients, and only 28% perceived nurses considering ECG interpretation as their job. Variability in ECG interpretation training, delivery modes, and assessments has been reported. The most common training program was online courses/modules/packages; however interestingly, the most common training format was face-to-face practical training. Just over 50% of the participants reported that nurses’ competency in ECG interpretation assessment was undertaken in their hospitals, with the most common tools being self-developed.
Conclusions
Nurse educators held high expectations of nurses’ competency in ECG interpretation; however, they perceived nurses’ competency in this area as needing improvement. The heterogeneity of training programs, methods, and assessments can result in significant discrepancies in skill levels. Hence, there is a strong need to develop a high-quality, standardised training program, a validated and standardised assessment tool, and a credible program standard.
Details
- Title
- Nurse educators' expectations, training, and assessments of electrocardiogram interpretation among Australian acute care nurses: a national survey
- Authors
- Yingyan Chen (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - NursingCaleb Ferguson - Sydney Local Health DistrictSusie Cartledge - Monash UniversityJacqueline Colgan - University of TasmaniaJeroen M Hendriks - Flinders UniversityKathryn Keller - Florida Atlantic UniversityFrances Fengzhi Lin - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - Nursing
- Publication details
- European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, Vol.24(7), pp.1077-1086
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1093/eurjcn/zvaf088
- ISSN
- 1873-1953
- PMID
- 40344016
- Copyright note
- © The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Data Availability
- The data may be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author, pending approval for data sharing from the university ethics committees.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Health - Nursing
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991128690402621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
- Nursing
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