Knowledge of Nurses Regarding Non Invasive Ventilation (NIV) Therapy

Undoubtedly, Nurses play a vital role in terms of patient outcomes in any health care settings. She needs to be knowledgeable and skillful as she needs to deal with a wide range of needs and problems of her patients. The success of any therapeutic regimen of patients during the hospital stay mostly lies with the nursing care received by the patient. Non Invasive Ventilation (NIV) therapy is a newer form of treatment in the management of patients with Respiratory failure. The use of NIV therapy continues to be more in an intensive care setting and increasingly higher in wards, as there are not enough beds available in an intensive care unit. In order to be able to assist patients on NIV therapy, the nurses need detailed, concrete practical information and education about various aspects of care required by patients on NIV therapy. Therefore, a descriptive study to assess the knowledge of nurses regarding NIV therapy and to associate between knowledge of nurses and selected demographic variables was done using simple random sampling technique. The study findings revealed that majority of nurses (68 %) had inadequate knowledge regarding NIV therapy. There was statistically significant association between knowledge of nurses and class attended on NIV (p=0.022) and cared for patients with NIV therapy (p=0.027).