Healthcare professionals’ views on training, standards, and resources for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: a cross-sectional survey

TL;DR

Healthcare professionals from multiple countries shared their views on ECMO training, standards, and resources, highlighting the need for better training and accessibility.

Contribution

The study provides insights into global healthcare professionals' perspectives on ECMO practices and identifies key barriers to its implementation.

Findings

61.8% of respondents supported ECMO procedures performed by certified specialists.

High costs and lack of qualified staff were identified as major obstacles to ECMO implementation.

Abstract

To assess health care professionals’ knowledge and opinions regarding extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) use, training, standards, and resource availability.

This cross-sectional study employed an online self-administered survey to evaluate health care professionals' knowledge and opinions concerning ECMO procedures. The survey consisted of multiple-choice and open-ended questions inquiring about demographics, ECMO practices, training and certification experiences, ECMO use during the COVID-19 pandemic, and obstacles to ECMO implementation.

The study enrolled 89 health care professionals from 12 countries. The respondents were most frequently from Kazakhstan (67.4%), Turkey (5.6%), Croatia (5.6%), and Ukraine (5.6%). Notably, 61.8% of respondents supported ECMO procedures performed by certified specialists. The respondents believed that the main ECMO indications were respiratory failure (83.1%), cardiopulmonary failure (69.6%), heart and lung transplantation (64.1%), and cardiogenic shock (58.4%). Major obstacles to ECMO implementation were reported to be high costs (53.9%), inadequately qualified staff (52.8% for physicians, 41.6% for nurses), and restricted availability of ECMO devices (42.7%).

The findings emphasize the need for standardized training, wider availability of ECMO standards, and efforts to address resource-related barriers to ECMO access. Our results primarily reflect practices in Kazakhstan and should be interpreted in light of the study's restricted geographical coverage.

Figures