Nurses' Practice Related to Invasive Procedures in Intensive Care Units at Zagazig University Hospitals

Background: Quality patient care is provided through sustaining excellence in nursing services. The delivery of critical care that is both appropriate and of the highest quality possible is a major concern of critical care nurses who provide or direct this care. AIM: to assess nurses’ knowledge and practice related to standards of nursing care for invasive procedures in intensive care units at Zagazig University Hospitals. Research question: Do nurses have adequate knowledge about invasive procedures? Do nurses follow the standard of nursing care while practice invasive procedures in intensive care units? Subjects and Methods: This descriptive study was carried on a sample of 85 nurses working at emergency and surgical ICUs at Zagazig University Hospitals. Tools for data collection included a self-administered questionnaire, an observation checklist and guidelines sheet for the nurses it contains of all information about four invasive procedures. Results: Nurses age ranged between 17 and 33 years with experience mean ±SD 4.2±3.3 years, and 89.4% of them had diploma degree in nursing. Nearly all nurses had satisfactory knowledge regarding IV cannula and urinary catheter, but only 61.2% had satisfactory knowledge related to enema. Adequate practice was very low especially for nasogastric tube (3.5%), and urinary catheter (18.8%). Diploma nurses had more satisfactory knowledge about enema (p=0.025). Attendance of training programs was leading to increase nurses’ knowledge about nasogastric tube (p=0.048). Bachelor degree nurses had more adequate practice in nasogastric (p<0.001) and enema (p=0.033) procedures. Conclusion and recommendations: Nnurses’ knowledge about the four studied invasive procedures in ICUs is better than their performance. Higher nursing qualification and attendance of previous training courses had a positive impact. It is recommended that the nursing orientation and in-service training programs stress on practical training. Also, diploma nurses would need more training. Other reasons underlying the poor performance need to be investigated and corrected.