KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES OF NURSES REGARDING BLOOD TRANSFUSION IN A PUBLIC SECTOR HOSPITAL, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Background: Blood transfusions shown to be effective life-saving treatment in clinical settings; it also has unfavorable effects. All Nurses play a significant part in the blood transfusion procedure. The simulated training emerged as a crucial component across all levels of nursing experience.

Objective: The study's objective was to evaluate nurses' transfusion-related knowledge and skills. 

Methodology: Descriptive cross sectional study design was used in a public sector hospital form July to October, 2023, calcultated sampel size was 88 while convenient sampling technique was used, the data was collected thorugh a validated structrued quesitoanire involved questioning nurses about their knowledge and practices related to blood transfusions.  All the Registered Nurese above the 18 years with valid PNC Liscne were included while Nurses with below than 18 years, Nursing Supervisors, Head Nurse/In-charges, Nursing Internee, and Student nurses were excluded from this study.

Results: In terms of demographics 50% of the participants were male and 50% were female. The participants' age distribution was approximately normal with an average age of 29.2 and a standard deviation of 4.3. In response to questions concerning the blood group types that acts as the universal donor, 60% of the surveyed nurses possess knowledge, 17% provided incorrect responses, and 22% lacked an idea. When asked whether a patient displays fever and chills during a transfusion, 53.41% of the nurses who participated in the survey reported knowing, 19.32% gave false information, and the remaining respondents (27.27%) were unsure of what to do in such a scenario.

Conclusion: The study's findings demonstrated that the nurses' mean knowledge score was approximately satisfactory. Nevertheless, the conclusions' inability to be broadly applied was negatively impacted by the small amount of research on the topic. Furthermore, because this study was carried out in a public sector hospital, its findings cannot be applied to other hospitals. Because of this, comparable research with a larger population and sample size have to be carried out.