Nurse' Performance Regarding Care of Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease on Nebulizer Therapy

Abstract

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the intensive care unit, nebulizers is treat certain respiratory diseases through the use of compressed liquid drugs to relieve respiratory insufficiency due to bronchospasm. Nurses must be knowledgeable to support clinical practice toward nebulizer therapy for patient with COPD to achieve best outcomes for patientsandsuccessful treatment process. Aim: Assess nurses' performance regarding care of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on nebulizer. Research Design:A descriptive exploratory design was used.Settings:The study was conducted atmedicine intensive care unit 2 affiliated to Ain Shams University hospital. Sample: A convenience sample of 30 nurses in the previous mentioned setting. Tools for Data Collection: data was collected by using Nurses' self-administered Questionnaire and Nurse's observational checklist. Result: the present study reveals that,76.7% of studied nurses didn't attend training courses about nebulizer therapy,53.3% of studied nurses were unsatisfactory level of knowledge, 66.7% of studied nurses were incompetent level of practice. Also, there were highly statistically significant correlation between total score of knowledge of the studied nurse's and their total score of practice. Conclusion: The study revealed that lack of nurses' knowledge and inadequate training regarding nebulizer therapy which affected negatively on their practice when caring patients with COPD. Additionally there were highly statistically significant correlation between total score of knowledge of the studied nurse's and total score of practice. Recommendations: Replication of the current study on large sample and different hospitals settings to be able to generalize the results.