Gaps in Knowledge Related to Equipment use in Pediatric Intensive Care and High Dependency Units

Surya Kant Tiwari; Srinithya Raghavan; Poonam Joshi; Mangilal Choudhary; Sheela A.; Anu Varghese; Chandani Gaur

doi:10.37591/jonsp.v10i3.2236

Abstract

Medical equipment has an important role in pediatric critical care. Health care professionalsneed to maintain their competency which is in-turn needed to ensure patient safety andprovide safe care. With increased burden on health care in PICU and HDU and due to lack oftime to upgrade knowledge, nurses may have possible gap in knowledge related to equipmentuse in PICU and HDU. This non-experimental descriptive cross-sectional study has beenconducted to identify gaps in the knowledge of nurses related to equipment use in pediatriccritical care units in which 22 Nursing Officers working in 6 pediatric critical care and highdependency units of a tertiary care facility were enrolled using random sampling technique.Tools consisting of demographic datasheet and 27 items structured knowledge questionnairewere administered after taking written informed consent from the participants. The resultsshowed that majority of the participants had poor knowledge related to equipment used inoxygenation therapy (86.4%), infusion therapy (90.9%), hemodynamic monitoring (100%)and resuscitation (50.0%). Overall equipment knowledge of the participants was poor relatedto equipment use in Pediatric Intensive Care and High Dependency Unit requiring periodiceducational programs, in-service education and workshops.