Cardiorespiratory arrest occupies one of the main causes of mortality, the knowledge of the nursing staff plays an essential role to perform an optimal cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A quantitative descriptive study was carried out with the aim of demonstrating the knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the nurses of a hospital in Zamora Chinchipe. An anonymous survey was applied via Google Forms to 40 operating nurses, the data were tabulated in SPSS 20 and Excel. It was found that 27.5% were male personnel, the most notable age group was between 31 and 40 years (60%), the area where there are more personnel was in the emergency room and obstetric center (35%), 50% had experience less than 5 years of work, only 1 in 4 has taken a CPR course, and 72.5% have participated in CPR in their area. The knowledge regarding recognition and definitions of cardiorespiratory arrest and CPR were correct in 80%, 70% and 47.5% respectively; knowledge regarding the causes of CRP and frequent complications of CPR were between 67.5% and 87.5%. Only 50% knew the correct sequence of CPR, only 30% knew the relationship between compression and ventilation cycles. Airway patency maneuvers and AED patching were correctly indicated between 37.5% and 47.5%. It is concluded that the knowledge of recognition and definition are good, but those of actions and maneuvers to be carried out in CPR are low

Keywords : Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, American Heart Association, Cardiac Arrest, Knowledge.