Knowledge and practices of nurses regarding inpatient management of chronic kidney disease at selected referral at hospitals in Rwanda.

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.