Assessment of Nurses' Knowledge Regarding Preoperative Preparation at Rania Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: The goal of preoperative care is to psychologically, physically, and emotionally prepare the patient or caregiver for the procedure. Patients must be informed by nurses of the importance of preoperative preparation before day surgery. Objectives: To assess nurses’ knowledge regarding preoperative preparation at Rania teaching hospital. Methodology: Quantitative design, descriptive study was conducted among (32) nurses’ who work at the surgical wards in Rania teaching hospital regarding pre-operative preparation during the period of 15th January 2019 up to 15th of March 2019. The study instrument was semi-constructed and consisted of (26) items and the data were collected through interviewing techniques with each sample individually. Data were analyzed by using (SPSS Version 23). Results: The study showed that most of the study sample was married females aged between (35-44) years old, who graduated from the institute with barely sufficient. Regarding the main finding (53.1%) of nurses had fair knowledge, (28.1%) of nurses had poor and (18.8%) of nurses had good knowledge. Statistically significant associations were found between age groups, gender, qualification, and years of experience with the level of knowledge. Conclusion: The study concluded that most of the study samples were adult age, female gender, married, barely sufficient, about half of nurses had diplomas, more than half of the study samples had less than 5 years of experience, and not participated in training courses related to preoperative care. More than half of the nurses had fair knowledge, and remain had either poor or good knowledge regarding preoperative preparation. Statistically significant associations were found between age groups, gender, qualification, and years of experience with the level of knowledge, and no significant associations were found between marital status, financial status, and training course with the level of knowledge. Recommendations: The study recommended that to expand the knowledge of nurses working in surgical wards, hospitals should implement particular training programs relevant to the surgical ward and teach how to manage preoperative preparation.