Assessment of nurse’s knowledge towards diabetic ketoacidosis in children in Mosul City, Iraq

Objective: To assess of nurse’s knowledge toward diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) among children Mosul hospitals. Methodology: This descriptive study was conducted at emergency, intensive care and pediatric wards. Non-random purposive sampling method was used to select 30 nurses. We used Diabetic Ketoacidosis based DKA-Guideline. The data were collected by interview and SPSS 24 was used for the statistical analysis. Results: Most nurses (56.7%) lacked adequate knowledge about DKA and most of them had poor knowledge about IV fluid for patient with DKA. Most of nurses’ knowledge about insulin management were acceptable (66.7%). Conclusion: Nurses' knowledge regarding DKA was slightly more than half of the sample, and their knowledge was poor towards intravenous fluids and electrolytes balancing. The study recommends the need for an educational program regarding DKA and diabetic patients, especially for nurses working in emergency and intensive care units.