Assessing Knowledge of Vietnamese Nurses about Prevention and Treatment of Anaphylaxis: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Anaphylaxis greatly affects the psychology of patients as well as medical staff. Therefore, knowing about the way of prevention and treatment of anaphylaxis by nurses plays a key role in improving patient's caring services. Objectives: This study was conducted to describe the current state of nurse’s knowledge about the prevention and treatment of anaphylaxis and collect some relative factors. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted with 82 nurses from March to May 2022. The questionnaire included 31 items to assess nurses' knowledge about anaphylactic state, anaphylaxis prevention, and treatment. The Chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables. Results: Most nurses had correct knowledge about anaphylactic symptoms, and common causes, with 82.9% and 81.7%. The percentage of nurses with good knowledge about anaphylaxis prevention and treatment recorded a moderate level (76.8%). Only 27.2% of nurses did not know about the type of new drug used for anaphylaxis treatment, while 28.2% recognized adrenalin dosage being used for adults. There were significant differences in knowledge about anaphylaxis prevention and treatment of nurses and ages, years of work, and number of times being trained on anaphylaxis (p<0.05). Conclusion: Nursing knowledge about anaphylaxis prevention and treatment was a moderate level, in particular, knowledge about drugs for emergency treatment of anaphylaxis was limited. Therefore, training sessions need to focus on helping nurses for better understanding of the medicines and the way of using them to be proactive in emergency reactions.