Assessment of Nurse's Knowledge Concerning Glasgow Coma Scale in Neuro Surgical Wards

Abstract

Objective: The study aims to assess nurse's knowledge concerning Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and to find out the relationship between nurses' knowledge and their demographical characteristics include educational level and years of experiences. Methodology: A descriptive study was carried out at three hospitals (Al-Shaheed Gahzee Al-Harery for surgical specialties hospital, Neuro Science hospital and Neuro surgical hospital), Starting in 1st Jan. 2011 to the end of April 2011. Non-probability (purposive) samples of 100 nurses were selected according to special criteria. The finalized questionnaire contained (25) items. The content validity of the instrument was established through penal of (4) experts. Test retest reliability of the item scale was determined as average of (r=0.83). Data was gathered by interview technique and data was analyzed by application of descriptive and inferential statistical methods by SPSS version 10. Results: The results indicated that all items which consist of (25) items related knowledge's nurses concerning Glasgow coma scale was inadequate. Conclusion: We conclude of the results of the study that nurses have inadequate knowledge about the Glasgow coma scale. Recommendations: The Study recommended that it is crucial need to education the nurse and to employ more qualified and knowledgeable nurses with high standards oriented competencies to apply through neurological assessment particularly Glasgow coma scale in neuro surgical wards.