A STUDY TO ASSESS THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF STAFF NURSES REGARDING MALNUTRITION AND NUTRITIONAL CARE OF HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL BELAGAVI, KARNATAKA

Food is the main fuel that runs a human body, both in health and illness. Food and Nutrition play a major role in the prevention of almost all diseases and promotion of health. Unfortunately at the global level, India is being placed among the highest ranked countries on the basis of number of malnourished children1. Childhood is a crucial period where we need to pay some extra attention for the nutritional needs and nutritional care of a child, as it acts as a strong pillar for his/her growth and development and prevention of malnutrition. Despite many medical advances over the past 20 years, the prevalence of malnutrition among hospitalized children has not decreased. Since the staff nurses spent more time with patients than any other healthcare workers and the patient recovery is greatly affected by the quality of care these nurses provide to their patients in all the aspects of care, including the nutritional aspect. Present study was conducted to assess the Nurses’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards nutritional care of the hospitalized children, in order to ensure quality nutritional care for hospitalized children who are at risk of developing malnutrition or who are already victims of it. A nonexperimental descriptive research design was adopted to carry out the present study on a sample of 40 staff nurses working at a Tertiary care hospital of Karnataka by administering MKAP questionnaire. The results of the study showed that majority of the staff nurses 28(70%) had average knowledge and neutral attitude regarding malnutrition and nutritional care among hospitalized children , while as 7(17.5%) had good knowledge and positive attitude and 5( 12.5%) of them had poor knowledge and negative attitude regarding malnutrition and nutritional care among hospitalized children. The majority of the staff nurses 25(62.5%) showed neutral practice regarding malnutrition and nutritional care among hospitalized children, while as 10 (25%) showed beneficial practice and 5 (12.5%) of them showed non-beneficial practice regarding malnutrition and nutritional care among hospitalized children. In the present study the association of Levels of KAP with demographic characteristics of the staff nurses was calculated by using chi-square test and no association was found between the two except for gender. The study concluded that most of the staff nurses are having average knowledge and neutral attitude and practice towards malnutrition and nutritional care of hospitalized children