Nurses Preparedness in prevention of Ventilator Associated Pneumonia

Abstract

Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) is a common and serious nosocomial infection affecting 20-36% of the critically ill Patients. Implementation of evidenced based guidelines is an effective way to reduce the incidence of VAP. The main objective of the study was to assess the knowledge of the nursing students regarding VAP and to identify the association of Knowledge with selected variables. Identifying the gaps will help to plan future strategies towards nurses' preparation as professionals. Exploratory survey using a structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from the nursing students using nonprobability sampling technique. The findings revealed that 50.6% of the students had ICU clinical exposure. The study found 40.6 % were able to identify the common bacteria causing VAP and 56.8 % were aware regarding the preventive measures for VAP. 29.4% had an excellent knowledge regarding VAP implying the need for better education and reinforcement, especially in prevention and management of VAP. Nursing students with ICU exposure had significantly better knowledge scores than those without ICU exposure (P<0.05). In conclusion, study revealed that gap exists in knowledge regarding VAP among nursing students.