Effectiveness of an Educational Program on Nurses’ Knowledge Regarding Neonatal Sepsis

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Background and Objectives: Neonatal sepsis is the main health problem that is accountable for about 30–50% of the overall neonatal mortality in the developing nations. Nurses can provide a straight care and have the ability to impact on neonate's outcomes, so that teaching nurses about sepsis is measured essential to improve neonates’ care, safety, and outcomes. The present study intends to increase the nursing knowledge regarding neonatal sepsis in Heevi Pediatric and Maternity Hospitals ICU departments. Materials and Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in the Heevi Pediatric and Maternity Hospitals from October 15, 2020 to January 20, 2021. The study included two groups: the control group (27 nurses) from Heevi Pediatric Hospital and the interventional group (25 nurses) from Maternity Hospital. The data were collected through the use of a questionnaire prepared in English and translated into Arabic and Kurdish. Its first part was concerned with demographic characteristics of the nurses, and the second part assessed their knowledge before and after implementation of the educational program regarding neonates with sepsis using a scoring system. The statistical calculations were performed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences, Version 25 (SPSS 25; IBM Corp.; USA). The ethical approval of the current intervention was obtained from the research Ethics Committee of Directorate of Health. Results: The pre-assessment of the outcomes showed that the control and experimental groups were comparable in knowledge score (P = 0.0931), whereas the post-assessment of the outcomes has showed a highly significant improvement in the experimental knowledge score in comparison to the control group (P ≤ 0.0001). The control and experimental groups were comparable in knowledge (awareness), and this comparability is highly significant in the interventional group (P < 0.0001), but in the control group, there is also a noticeable progress as P = 0.0014. The nurses were comparable in the different educational groups regarding nurses’ educational levels and their awareness of neonatal sepsis (P = 0.9737). The nurses were comparable in the experimental group with their age (P = 0.3410), experience in working in neonatal intensive care units (P = 0.3744), and the training courses the nurses shared (P = 0.49546). In the control group unit, the maximum score of nurses’ knowledge was 20 and the minimum score was 9. Whereas in the interventional group, the maximum score was 17 and the minimum score was 11. After application of the program to the interventional group, the score was as follows: in the control group, the maximum and minimum scores were 21 and 11, whereas in the interventional group, the scores were 24 and 19, respectively. Conclusion: The educational program was effective in increasing the nurses’ knowledge regarding neonatal sepsis care.