European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE REGARDING ENDOTRACHEAL CARE AMONG THE HEALTH PROFESSIONALS OF SHAHID GANGALAL NATIONAL HEART CENTER, BANSBARI, KATHMANDU, NEPAL

Dahal Punam* and Kunwar Shama Singh

ABSTRACT

Endotracheal care is a collective care within intensive care units (ICUs) which includes hand washing, maintaining sterile technique before and after suctioning of endotracheal tube, suctioning of oral and nasal airway, adequate humidification, hyperventilation, alertness about complication, inflating and deflating of cuff at appropriate time.[1] Adequate knowledge along with the correct procedure performance is required to follow the aseptic technique which in turn prevents acquired endotracheal infection. Nurses are the forefront care giver at such settings. Objective: To assess the Knowledge and Practice regarding endotracheal care among the Health Professional. Method and Material: A simple descriptive cross sectional study design was used for the studies which was conducted in critical care units of Shahid Gangalal National Heart Center with a sample of 61 health professional especially nurses and were selected by Non – probability purposive sampling technique. A semi-structured questionnaire was prepared to obtain socio-demographic information regarding their knowledge and practice on endotracheal care. Collected data was then checked and rechecked for completeness and accuracy, then entered in SPSS Software Version 20. Descriptive statistics such as numbers and percentage were used to describe demographic data and for the analysis of the level of the participants’ knowledge and practice. To determine association of knowledge with socio-demographic factors ―Chi-square Test‖ was used, and subsequently, the relationship between knowledge and practice was assessed by using Pearson’s Correlation Technique. Result: The study found out that majority (62.3%) were age > 26 years. Majority of (41%) completed Bachelor of Nursing.Majority (30%) had work experience of 1 to 5 years. Highest number (37.7%) worked in ASICU. Most of the (54.1%) are married. All the participants had not taken any training regarding endotracheal tube care. Level of knowledge was good among 60% and fair among 39.3%. Level of Practice was good among 86.9% and fair among 13.1%. There was significant association of working unit with Knowledge (Chi – square 'p' value = 0.009). It was found out that there is no significant association of education, working unit and marital status with practice as Chi-square 'p' value= > 0.05. Correlation of knowledge and practice showed significant relationship between them, it indicate that when knowledge score is changes, practice score is also changes by 29.2 %. Conclusion: This is concluded that level of Practice is higher than level of knowledge despite of highest education level, it may be due to longer working experience in same critical care unit and may be due to handing over the culture of care to junior. Therefore, further training, in-service education is required to the nurses in order to increase knowledge and practice both practically and theoretically.

Keywords: Knowledge, Practice, Endotracheal Care, Endotracheal Suctioning, Health Professional.