Nurses' Performance toward Patients with Fever at Intensive Care Unit: Recommended Guidelines

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Ain Shams University

2 Department of Critical Care Nursing,Faculty of Nursing, Ain Shams University

Abstract

Background: Fever is a common problem in ICU patients; it is a medical condition when there is
an uncontrolled rise in the body temperature, measured as above 37.5 degrees Celsius. Aim of the study:
This study aimed to assess nurse's performance regarding patients with fever at intensive care units.
Study design A descriptive exploratory design was used in this study. Setting intensive care units at
Nasser General Hospital, affiliated to Ministry of Health. Study subject: A convenience subject of all
available nurse's Tools: I Self – administration questionnaire, II nurses' practice observational checklist,
III- Nurses' attitude rating scale. Results: revealed that the mean age of the studied nurses were
26.1±4.4, 62.9% of the studied nurse's had satisfactory level of knowledge, there was 75% of them
had satisfactory level of practices and 55.7% of nurses under study had positive attitude toward
patients with fever at intensive care units. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between
attitude and their practices, there is a statistically negative correlation between knowledge and
attitude of studied nurses regarding patient with fever at intensive care units. Conclusion: More
than two thirds of the studied nurses had satisfactory level of knowledge, three quarter of them had
satisfactory level of practices regarding patients with fever at intensive care units, and more than
half of the studied nurses had positive attitude toward patients with fever at intensive care units.
Also, there is high significant relation between nurses’ knowledge, practice & their demographic
characteristics. Recommendations: in service training program must be developed based on nurses’
need assessment regarding care of patients with fever.

Keywords