Effect of educational sessions about dengue fever on nurse’s knowledge and attitude at Zagazig Fever Hospital

Abstract

Background Dengue fever (DF) is emerging as a serious global health problem. Nurses serve as the frontline health care workers who assist in the diagnosis and treatment of dengue and other febrile illnesses. Aim The aim of this article is to assess the effect of educational sessions about DF on nurse’s knowledge and attitude at Zagazig Fever Hospital. Patients and methods A quasi-experimental design was used in carrying out the study during the period from November 2017 to January 2018. The study was conducted in Zagazig Fever Hospital, Sharkia Governorate. The sample included 71 nurses (39 diploma nurses and 32 bachelor nurses), working at the outpatient and the emergency clinic according to the inclusion criteria. Two tools were used. Tool 1 was a questionnaire that consisted of two parts: part A was used to collect data relating to demographic characteristics of the nurses, whereas part B involved nurse’s knowledge about DF using a self-administered questionnaire. Tool 2 was a self-administered questionnaire that was designed to assess nurses’ attitude toward DF. Results The comparison of pretest and post-test scores of nurses’ knowledge and attitudes revealed highly statistically significant improvement (P Conclusion The post-test score was higher than the pretest score for both knowledge and attitudes of nurses regarding DF. Recommendations Primary prevention of infectious diseases like DF should be given priority, and education about it should be provided in fever hospitals, through in-service health educational training session to be provided to all nurses in the fever hospitals, especially the newly appointed ones before they start their work.