The evaluation of nurses' knowledge related to tracheostomy care in tertiary intensive care units

Background: Almost 1⁄4 of mechanical ventilator-supported patients undergo tracheostomy while there is a lack of standardized education and guideline-based tracheostomy care. The nursing staff should attend in appropriate educational activities to maintain their competence hence this necessitates the evaluation of their knowledge level. We aimed to analyze the knowledge level of the nursing staff related to tracheostomy care in tertiary intensive care units, in Ankara. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was designed through the questionnaire which managed during the period from January 2018 to July 2018 in Ankara, Turkey. The questionnaire was distributed to 150 nurses working in intensive care units (ICU) on a voluntary basis. The statistical analysis was done by SPSS 20.0. The correlation between categorical variables was assessed through Spearman’s rho test while the continuous variables were evaluated by the Kruskal Wallis Test and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: 138 valid questionnaires were included in the study, with a response rate of 92% and the answers about the emergent cases were not satisfactory (approximately 30% correctness). The respondents were aged 19-48 years and the percentage of the correct answer in total was %56 and only 64 nurses (46.4%) answered ≥7 questions correctly. In this study, no variable did show a significant correlation with nurses’ knowledge level. Conclusions: We have to admit that there is not any standardized education program related to tracheostomy care while the level of nurses' knowledge of tracheostomy care was below expectations and there is a need for educational programs to close the knowledge gap.