Knowledge, attitude and practices of nurses towards medical exmination at Ndola central and Arthur Davidson children hospitals in Ndola district.

Abstract

The study was aimed at determining the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of nurses towards medical examination. Medical examination is a health promoting service aimed at preventing diseases and improving health of an individual. This service has been underutilized by nurses and literature review had shown that there has been an increase in morbidity and mortality rates among health workers in general. The study employed a non intervention descriptive study and was conducted at Ndola Central Hospital and Arthur Davison Hospital in Ndola District. A sample size of 44 nurses was selected by stratified random sampling according to the two categories of Registered and Enrolled Nurses. A self administered questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. A pilot study was conducted to test for validity and reliability of the study design and the data collection tool at one of the health centres in Ndola District which had similar characteristics of the Hospital settings. The findings of the study revealed that there was no correlation between nurses' knowledge of medical examination and practices and utilization of medical examination services. The study also revealed that nurses' attitude has an influence on the utilization of the medical examination services. The findings of the study on the factors contributing to underutilization of the medical examination facilities revealed that lack of confidentiality ranked first followed by lack of institutional policy on medical examination. The other contributing factor was poor communication in the institutions.