Knowledge of critical care nurses on cardiac medications-need for reinforcement workshop

Cardiovascular disease remains a major health problem in today’s society. It is estimated that more than 6 million people have a history of myocardial infarction and/or angina. Hypertension is another major health problem affecting at least 50 million people in the United States. Due to the high prevalence of these conditions, many patients will be taking one or more cardiac medications. The present study was carried out with the objectives to assess the knowledge of critical care nurses on cardiac medications and to find out the association between the qualification, clinical experience and the previous experience of attending cardiac emergencies. The research approach used for this study was survey approach. Descriptive survey design was adopted. About 108 critical care nurses were selected using convenient sampling technique. The data collection instruments were: Demographic Proforma and Structured knowledge questionnaire on cardiac medications. Content validity of the tools was established by giving it to five experts in the field of nursing, general medicine cardiac medicine and pharmacology. Modifications were made according to experts’ suggestions. The tools were pretested before use among five critical care nurses. Reliability coefficient of Structured knowledge questionnaire was found out by using Split half technique and the tool was found reliable (r=0.806). Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The significant findings of the study were: Majority 74(68.5%) of the participants were between the age group of >25-40 years, Majority 85 (78.7%) were females. About 65 (60.2%) were with the GNM qualification, majority 62(57.4%) were with the clinical experience of >1-5 years and 35 (32.4%) mentioned that they had attended cardiac emergencies during their clinical experience. It was found that the majority 47 (43.5%) of the participants shared equally good and average knowledge on cardiac medications. It was found that there was no significant association between the knowledge of critical care nurses on cardiac medications and education (χ²=2.295,p=0.317) and clinical experience(χ² =8.551,p<0.200).