Assessment of Nurses' Knowledge and Practice Regarding Care for Patients with Spinal Cord Injury in the Critical Care Unit

Abstract

Background: Spinal cord injury is a damage in the spinal cord that communication between brain and the rest of the body is disrupted, resulting in a loss of movement and sensation from below the level of injury. Damage to the spinal cord can be caused by a trauma like an accident, or as a result of infection or disease. Aim This study was to assess the nurses' knowledge and practice regarding caring for patients with spinal cord injury in critical care unit. Research design: A descriptive exploratory design, utilized for the conduction of the study, setting conducted at general intensive care unit and neurological intensive care unit in Ain Shams University hospital. Study sample: A purposive sample of 50 nurses. Tools: Two tools were used for data collection were 1) nurses self-administered questionnaire sheet. It included two parts. part one concerned with the assessment of the demographic characteristics of the studied nurses and part two concerned with nurses knowledge questionnaire regarding caring for patients with spinal cord injury.2) Nurses' observational check list about nursing practice for patients with spinal cord injury to assess nurses practice. Results; the result of the study showed that 54% of the studied nurses had satisfactory total knowledge regarding caring for patients with spinal cord injury in critical care unit and 58%of the studied nurses had an un satisfactory level of total practice regarding caring for patients with spinal cord injury in critical care unit, the study finding revealed that there was statically significant relation between nurses knowledge and their level of practice regarding caring for patients with spinal cord injury. Conclusion: the current study concluded that the studied nurses' knowledge and practice had statistically significant relation between total knowledge and practice. Recommendation: recommended health care setting should provide in-service educational programs and upgrading courses based on evidence based guidelines to improve the nurses knowledge and practice among patients with spinal cord injury in critical care unit.