The Investigation of Nurses’ Nutritional Knowledge, Belief and Behavior in Elderly Care Institutions of Yantai City

Abstract

Objective: To understand the nutritional nursing knowledge, belief and practice of nurses in elderly care institutions in Yantai city, and to provide basis for formulating corresponding countermeasures. Methods: The nutritional knowledge, belief, behavior and needs of 82 nurses in 15 elderly care institutions of Yantai city were investigated, and their different educational background, age, working years, professional titles and different types of elderly care institutions were compared and analyzed. Results: The nurses’ nutritional knowledge in hospital grade, nutritional belief in age and working years, nutritional practice in working years、technical titles and hospital grade were statistically significant differences (<I>P > </I>0.05). The overall level of nutrition knowledge of nurses in elderly care institutions was low. The knowledge, belief and behavior scores of nurses in hospitals with combination of medical care and nursing were higher. Nurses aged 21-25 years and working for 1-5 years scored higher in nutritional knowledge and attitude. There was no significant difference in the average scores of nurses with different educational levels and professional titles. Conclusion: The overall level of nutritional knowledge of nurses in elderly care institutions is low, and the nutritional behavior needs to be further standardized. The nutritional knowledge, belief and behavior of nurses in hospitals combined with medical care are better than those in community care centers. Timely measures should be taken to improve the nutritional knowledge level of nurses in community care centers.