KNOWLEDGE OF NURSING STUDENTS REGARDING CARE OF INTENSIVE CARE UNIT PATIENTS

Author Name: 1. Mrs. Thangam sheela Rosaline, 2. DR. Rajrani

Volume/Issue: 03/12

Country: India

DOI NO.: 08.2020-25662434 DOI Link: https://doi-ds.org/doilink/05.2023-96912133/UIJIR

Affiliation:

1. Ph.D Scholar, Himalayana University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India 
2. Ph.D Guide, Himalayana University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India 

ABSTRACT

Background: It has been strengthened that nursing students benefit from ICU placements by practicing their patient care skills, widen their knowledge by observing complex treatments and care activities. Besides these positive outcomes it is also being emphasized that ICU environment is a complex environment for students which may trigger their stress during clinical placements. There are very few studies related to nursing students’ perceptions about ICU placements. Objective: To assess the knowledge of student nurses regarding care of intensive care unit patient.Methods: The study was conducted in selected ICU hospitals by two data collectors and selected hospitals. The questionnaire were checked for completeness, cleaned manually and entered in to Epi- Data version 4.2. Then the data was transferred in to SPSS version 21.0 for further analysis. Descriptive statistics were carried out. Finally checked association between dependent and independent variables. Result: showed that level of knowledge was done as follows: 28(46.7%) of the students were good knowledge, 26(43.3%) Average knowledge and 6(10%) were poor knowledge regarding care of intensive care unit patients. Assessment of the level of knowledge of nursing students with demographic characteristics. Gender and course of study significantly association with knowledge level of students with p<0.05. Conclusion Personal experiences and perceptions of the nursing students play an important role in forming their thoughts related to ICU. ICU environment is a place where nursing students experience different procedures and caring activities and get involved in analyzing complex health conditions. For the students who are at their beginning of their nursing education ICU’s are quite stressful places to practice nursing skills. Considering nursing students’ limited autonomy at ICU’s comparing to clinical wards we recommend the use of the intensive care unit as a part of clinical education for nursing students who are close to their graduation such as intern students

Key words: Knowledge, Intensive Care Unit, patients, care