Abstract:
The present study entitled assessment of nurses’ knowledge, attitude and practice in emergency care of road traffic accidents victims at three selected Rwanda hospitals. Emergency nursing care of RTA victims is very crucial in order to reduce the number of deaths and disabilities. Nevertheless, in Rwanda there is no documented study that has assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses in emergency care of RTA victims. The objectives of the study were to determine the knowledge of nurses on emergency care of RTA victims, to describe the attitudes of nurses on emergency care of RTA victims, to describe the nurses’ emergency care practices to be delivered to RTA victims, to establish the relationship between demographic characteristics and KAP of nurses at Accident and Emergency departments. The study hopes to inform quality improvement initiatives and development of guidelines and or protocols.
The study used a quantitative cross sectional descriptive study using the entire population with a sample size of 51 nurses. The study had been conducted in three selected Rwanda hospitals. The data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. A tool that has been tested for reliability and validity in previous studies was used with permission. The SPSS version 21 software was used for analyzing the data, statistical tests such as chi square test and multinomial logistic regression test were used. The findings showed that the big proportion (39.2%) of participants had the high level of knowledge, the majority of them (73.657%) had positive attitude and the big proportion (41.1%) of them had very high level of practice towards emergency management of RTA victims and the majority. The findings showed association between demographic information and level of practice: Training on emergency management of trauma victims before was associated with level of practice (Chi2=12.632, P=0.006). Respondents who reported being trained and reported having very high level of practice had sixteen less than very low practice.
This study revealed that the knowledge and practice of nurses is generally good and their attitude is generally positive in emergency management of RTA victims. It also revealed that training contribute greatly to good practice in terms of emergency management of RTA victims. The findings of this study should be used to design a module regarding the gaps of nurses working at A&E service and guidelines and protocols should be made easily accessible. The newly employed in A&E service should receive prior training in emergency care of RTA victims and the experienced employees should receive refresher courses regularly.
