Acute and critical care nurses’ knowledge of non-invasive ventilation

Abstract

Background: Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) use has significantly increased over the past three decades, adapted from critical care settings into ward settings, becoming an integral tool in the management of respiratory failure. Evidence suggests that proper use of NIV has several advantages, but a lack of team expertise increases the risk of NIV failure. To provide good standard of care it is crucial that all staff providing NIV are trained in both knowledge as well as practical skills within their area of competence. Objectives: The main objectives of this study were to assess the knowledge of local nurses who provide NIV patient care on non-invasive ventilation, and to associate the study findings related to knowledge with selected demographic variables of nurse participants. Design and methods: The study was conducted among 78 nurses who work either in specialized units providing NIV therapy or NIV patient care at the acute general teaching hospital in Malta, excluding nurses in a managerial post. A self-administered online questionnaire, consisting of 35 close-ended questions, was prepared by the researcher and used to collect the data. For analysis of the results, frequencies and percentages were obtained using Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman’s tests, where appropriate. Results: Participants predominantly had between 6-10 years of general nursing experience and 3-10 years of NIV experience, with most having undergraduate degrees and more than half currently working in an emergency setting. Most of the participants attended NIV training and were more aware of local guidelines than international guidelines. Overall participants’ knowledge was moderate, with participants having more knowledge in pathophysiology than in other domains. There was no statistical significance between knowledge and the independent variables. Conclusions: The overall participants’ knowledge level on NIV was generally moderate. Knowledge was better in variables such as units, nursing experience, NIV experience, and training, although no statistical significance was found. On the other hand, no difference in NIV knowledge levels existed between participants in different categories related to guideline awareness and formal education. A positive association was identified between the four knowledge domains with a statistically significant association between the monitoring, technical, and nursing domains.