Effect of nursing educational program on nurses' knowledge and practice regarding patients with anterior cruciate ligament surgery at Assiut university hospital

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery is one of the most common clinical
entities in daily orthopedic practice. Nurses should develop their own knowledge and quality
of nursing care that are needed to practice safely with patients post ACL surgery. Aim of the
study: was to evaluate the effect of nursing educational program on nurse's knowledge and
practice regarding patients with anterior cruciate ligament surgery. Subjects & methods:
Research design: Quasi experimental research design was utilized in this study. Setting:
This study was conducted in arthroscopy and sports injuries unit at orthopedic department at
Assiut University Hospital. Subjects: A convenient sample of 44 nurses was included in this
study. Tools of data collection: Data collected by utilizing the designed interview
questionnaire sheet consists of biosocial characteristics of nurses and assessment of
nurses' knowledge, observation checklist sheet consists of nurses' practice and instructions.
Results: The results can be concluded that 93.2% of nurses had a poor level of knowledge
regarding ACL with Mean ± SD (7.57 ± 2.73). All of nurses (100%) had an inadequate level
practice regarding care for patients post ACL surgery with Mean ± SD (133.07±30.60).It was
found that there was a strong relationship (r =.838, P = .0001) between total knowledge score
and total practice score regarding care for patients post ACL surgery. Conclusion: it can be
concluded that, Nurses` knowledge and practice regarding ACL surgery in orthopedic
department of Assiut University Hospitals improved. Recommendations: Continuous
education and in-service training programs, encouraging nurses to read textbooks and
periodicals and to attend scientific meeting and conferences and similar studies on a larger
sample acquired from different geographical areas in Egypt should be done to achieve more
generalizable results are recommended.