A Descriptive Study on Knowledge and Practice of Staff Nurses towards Nursing Initial Assessment in Selected Hospital at Mangaluru

The initial nursing assessment is the initial step of the nursing process. It involves the systematic and continuous collection, analyzing and organizing the data. Documentation and communication of the data collected, critical thinking skills are applied during the nursing process. This provides decision making and a framework to develop a plan of care for the patient incorporating evidence-based practice study was conducted To assess the knowledge and practice of the staff nurses towards nursing initial assessment in a selected hospital at Mangaluru. The sample consists of 170 staff nurses. The data was obtained by using a Questionnaire and a checklist method. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, mean %, median, frequencies, and inferential statistics such as χ2 for finding the association between the knowledge score, practice, and demographic variable. The study revealed that 69.47 % of staff nurses had good knowledge of initial assessment whereas 28.8 % of staff nurses had average knowledge and 1.78 % of staff had poor knowledge. The study also revealed that 76.55 staff nurses are having good nursing initial assessment practice and 23.5 % are having average nursing initial assessment practice.