The Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Regarding First Aid among Nurses in Teaching Hospital Karapitiya, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Background: First aid is the initial step in patient management which aims in saving lives of injured victims. Nursing officers play an important role in this as frontline healthcare givers. Objective: To assess the knowledge, practices and attitudes of first aid among nursing officers in the Teaching Hospital Karapitiya (THK) Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study done among 400 nursing officers in the THK. Convenient sampling method was used to select the study participants. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire which was developed by authors and pre tested for the reliability. The questionnaire consists of three aspects regarding the first aid such as knowledge, practices and attitudes. A score was given for each part. Results: The mean (±SD) knowledge, attitude and practice scores were 62.11 (±6.57), 26.60 (±3.90) and 53.32 (±7.63), respectively. Majority of the participants (n = 356, 88.5%) had good overall knowledge on first aid. The participants had good knowledge on different types of emergencies in different proportions; burn (89.7%), fractures (88%), seizures (97%) and poisoning (73.3%). The practice was good only among 166 (41.5%) nurses. Participants showed good practice in different emergencies; burn (49.3%), fractures (81.5%), seizures (75.5%), and poisoning (71.8%). However, the attitude was moderate among majority of nurses (n = 225, 56.3%). Conclusion: The majority of the nurses had good knowledge on first aid while the practice and attitude of first aid were moderate in most of the nurses in THK.