Nurses' Knowledge and Practice Regarding Hemodynamic Monitoring for Patients with Cardiothoracic, Vascular Surgery and Patient Outcome

Hemodynamic monitoring of a surgical patient acquires a major relevance in high-risk patients and those
suffering from surgical diseases associated with hemodynamic instability. So International and national job
duties of ICU nurses obligate them to tackle the hemodynamic monitoring. This study aimed to evaluate
nurses' knowledge and practice regarding hemodynamic monitoring for patients with cardiothoracic,
vascular surgery and patient outcome in cardiothoracic intensive care units at Zagazig University Hospital
and Al Ahrar Hospital. A descriptive cross sectional design was utilized. Data were collected from two
setting; the cardiothoracic intensive care units at Zagazig University and Al-Ahrar Hospital. The study was
conducted on forty four nurses and forty four patients from the same hospital setting which have been
selected to the study. Two tools were used for collection of data, first, questionnaire self-administer tool to
collect demographic characteristics of study nurses, questions to assess nurses' knowledge regarding
hemodynamic monitoring for patients with cardiothoracic, vascular surgery and patient outcome. Second
tool was an observational checklist to assess nurses' practice regarding hemodynamic monitoring for patients
with cardiothoracic, vascular surgery. Results of this study showed that, more than half of the nurses were
less than 30 years and had less than 10 years of experience, half of the nurses graduated from technical
institute. Less than a quarter of the studied nurses had satisfactory total knowledge regarding hemodynamic
monitoring. Less than one third of the studied nurses had total satisfactory practice regarding hemodynamic
monitoring for patients with cardiothoracic, vascular surgery. Relation's analysis showed no significant
relation between total nurses’ knowledge and practice scores. There was no significant relation between total
knowledge score and total practice score and patient outcome. Conclusion nurses had unsatisfactory level of
knowledge and practice about hemodynamic monitoring for patients with cardiothoracic, vascular surgery.
They did not apply the most recommended nursing practices regarding hemodynamic monitoring for
patients with cardiothoracic, vascular surgery. It is recommended to design and apply training programs to
improve nurses' knowledge and practice regarding hemodynamic monitoring for patients with cardiothoracic,
vascular surgery.