Abstract:
Introduction: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a serious condition to manage and requires
multidisciplinary team involvement. Nurse’s knowledge and good practices play a major role
in decreasing morbidity and mortality in CKD patients.
Aim: To assess knowledge and practices of nurses regarding inpatient management of
Chronic Kidney Disease at selected referral hospitals in Rwanda.
Method: A quantitative approach with Non-experimental descriptive correlational design
was used. The study was conducted at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Kigali (CHUK)
and Rwanda Military Hospital (RMH) in emergency, renal and internal medicine units and a
non-probability purposive total population sampling was used. Data was collected among 120
nurses Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to determine the meaning of data
collected. Chi-square test was used to establish an association between demographic
characteristics, knowledge and practice of nurse’s regarding inpatient management of CKD
patients. Pearson correlation coefficient ® was also calculated to identify relationship
between nurse’s knowledge and practice regarding inpatient CKD management. Knowledge
and practice levels were categorized as >80% “high”50–79 % “moderate” and 1–49 % “low
Results: The overall findings of the present study were: The majority (84%) had moderate
level of knowledge and almost half (51%) of nurses had moderate level of practice (score 50–
79%) regarding of inpatient management of CKD. The factors associated with knowledge of
inpatient management of CKD were hospital of practice (16.3; 95% CI 15.5–17; p=.024),
work service (17.6; 95% CI 16.6–18.6; p=.000), level of training (17.4; 95% CI 12.1–22.6;
p=.010) and type of specialty (mean = 19.4; 95% CI 18.4–20.3; p=.000) were significantly
associated with knowledge of inpatient management of CKD. The factors associated with
practice of inpatient management of CKD was work service (mean = 3.8; 95% CI 3.4–4.3;
p=.015) was significantly associated with practice of inpatient management of CKD. A very
weak positive relationship, which non-significance between knowledge and practice of
inpatient management of chronic kidney disease (r = .115, N = 120, p = .21) have been
observed.
Conclusion: Nurses knowledge and practice of inpatient management of CKD is
prerequisites in management of patients with CKD in Rwanda. Nurses should have frequent
continuous professional development to enhance their level of knowledge and practice for
better health outcomes of CKD patients. Further research is needed to identify the barriers to
management of CKD in Rwanda.
