Knowledge and practice towards care and maintenance of peripheral intravenous cannula among nurses in Chitwan Medical College Teaching Hospital, Nepal

Abstract

Abstract Aim The study is mainly concerned about the care and maintenance of peripheral intravenous cannulation: to determine the knowledge and practice of nurses towards care and maintenance of IV cannula and to find out the obstacles encountered in caring and maintaining IV cannula. Intravenous cannulation is a common procedure performed by nurses in every hospital and closely associated with the risk of nosocomial infections if standard care is not provided. Design A descriptive cross‐sectional study design was carried out. Methods Nurses' knowledge and practice towards care and maintenance of peripheral intravenous cannula were assessed using a validated semi‐structured self‐administered questionnaire through the census method. Data were analysed through SPSS program. The comparison was done between knowledge and practice. Results The findings revealed that 84.72% respondents were doing correct practices despite the fact that only 82.47% respondents had proper knowledge. Most nurses have good knowledge of caring and maintaining peripheral intravenous cannulation but there were some without proper knowledge and practice. This could be a potential risk factor for patient safety.

Keywords

• knowledge
• nurses
• peripheral intravenous cannula
• practice