Knowledge attitude and practice among nurses towards documentation of fluid balance chart at UTH Lusaka.

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practices among nurses towards the documentation of fluid intake and output chart in clinical areas at University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka. The major hypotheses were (1) the higher the knowledge on fluid balance chart, the better the practice and (2) There is an association between knowledge and practice on importance of documenting the fluid intake and output chart. A non - experimental descriptive cross sectional study was used and a total of 50 nurses were recruited in the study using convenient sampling method and a self administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The respondents in this study were from different departments at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) such as Peadiatrics, Obstetric/gynaecology, Medical and Surgical departments and Emergency Departments. The results of the study indicated that (60%) of the respondents had high knowledge of fluid balance chart documentation. Majority of the respondents (54%) had a positive attitude towards fluid balance chart documentation. According to the study, the level of knowledge was high while those with level of practice are average. This revealed that the Nursing Tutors/Clinical instructors need to be more vigilant while conducting demonstrations to the Student Nurses in clinical areas; the latter could do return demonstration and practice more procedures for them to be more efficient so that they improve on practice of fluid balance documentation.