1879 Pediatric Nurses Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Vital Signs

Aim This study was planned to determine pediatric nurses’ knowledge and attitudes towards monitoring the vital signs. Methods One hundred eleven nurses working in the inpatient clinics at a children’s hospital located in İzmir participated in the study. In the study, the following three forms were used: “The Socio-demographic Questionnaire”, “The Vital Signs Knowledge Assessment Survey” and “The Vital Signs Attitude Assessment Survey”. Knowledge and attitude surveys were prepared in accordance with the following guidelines published by the Royal College of Nursing: “Standards for Assessing, Measuring and Monitoring Vital Signs in Infants, Children and Young People” and “The Recognition and Assessment of Acute Pain in Children”. Cronbach’s alpha value of the Knowledge Survey is 0.87, the Attitude Survey is 0.86. Results The mean scores the nurses obtained from the knowledge survey were as follows: general principles: 87.9±7.8, temperature: 87.6±10.1, Pulse: 93.1±8.0, respiration: 96.4±7.4, blood pressure: 92.8±7.0 and pain: 91.8±9.8. The mean scores the nurses obtained from the attitude survey were as follows: general principles: 81.7±11.99, temperature: 87.4±15.9, pulse: 89.6±12.5, respiration: 95.3±9.8, blood pressure: 95.8±12.2 and pain: 91.0±15.5. Of the nurses, 49% stated that nurses themselves should decide about the frequency of monitoring vital signs whereas 41.4% stated that it should be ordered by the physician. Conclusion According to our findings, nurses’ knowledge and attitude scores relating to monitoring vital signs are quite high.