Abstract

Knowledge and practice towards care and maintenance of peripheral intravenous cannula among nurses in Chitwan Medical College Teaching Hospital, Nepal

Author(s): Chadani Osti

 A descriptive crossâ?sectional study design was carried out with the aim to determine the knowledge and practice of nurses towards care and maintenance of peripheral intravenous cannulation (PIC) and to find out what obstacles encountered in caring and maintaining IV cannulas. As PIC is a common as well as very important procedure performed by nurses in every hospital and closely associated with the risk of nosocomial infections if standard care is not provided. Nurses' knowledge and practice towards care and maintenance of PIC were assessed using a validated semiâ?structured selfâ? administered questionnaire through the census method. Data were analysed through SPSS program. The comparison was done between knowledge and practice. The findings revealed that 84.72% respondents were doing correct practices despite the fact that only 82.47% respondents had proper knowledge. Most nurses have good knowledge of caring and maintaining peripheral intravenous cannulation but there were some without proper knowledge and practice. This could be a potential risk factor for patient safety. The study shows that there is no any correlation between knowledge and the practices. There are so many other factors, which are directly or indirectly affecting on the standard of the care.