Knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses working in South Gondar zone hospitals toward initial management of acute poisoning, 2021

Abstract

Introduction: poisoning is defined as injury or death caused by ingesting, breathing, touching, or injecting a variety of medications, chemicals, venoms, or gases. In many places of the world, it is a cause of both morbidity and mortality. Poisoning episodes are thought to cause more than one million diseases each year around the world. The goal of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices of Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital nurses in regard to the early management of acute poisoning in 2021. Methods: from August 1 to August 30, 2021, an institution-based cross-sectional study was undertaken. During data collection, all nurses at Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital were interviewed. Epi-info version 7.2 and SPSS version 24 were used to enter and analyse data. Results: the study recruited the participation of 149 nurses, with a response rate of 98%. In general, 132 (88.5%) of the nurses and 79 (52.3%) of the nurses had good knowledge and practice in the initial management of acute poisoning. Poison, as defined by 139 (93.3%) of them, is any substance capable of causing damage or dysfunction in the body through its chemical action. Patients coming with poisoning take more staff time, causing staff to be unavailable to patients in greater need of assistance, as according 58.9% of nurses, and 98.6% of nurses say that patients presenting with poisoning must be addressed with "strict" techniques to curtail the practice. Conclusion: despite the fact that the majority of nurses had good understanding of early poisoning therapy, their practice was insufficient.