Emergency service nurses using physical examination information and skills

Purpose: The research has been done to determine the level of information and skill about the physical examination and training requirements of emergency nurses. Methodology: The descriptive research has been done with the participation of 130 nurses, who are working in adult emergency room of Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine Hospital, Sağlık Bilimleri Ünivercity Education and Research Hospital, Atatürk Goverment Hospital and Kepez Goverment Hospital. The data has been collected with "Nurse Information Form" and "Physical Examination Skills Assessment Form". The data obtained from the study is evaluated by using SPSS, number, percentage, Independent Samples test, Variance analysis, Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis test. Results: 67.7% of emergency nurses were women. 53.1% of nurses were graduated from undergraduate programs and 70.0% of the nurses were not educated about physical examination. A significant number of nurses (70.0%) stated that there is a suitable enviroment for physical examination in the emergency room and more than half (64.6%) of them have physical examination role. It was determined that the physical examination skills of the nurses, which had the highest level of knowledge and skill, were vital findings, skin and neurological evaluation, and the evaluation of genitourinary system was the lowest. Nurses stated that they need training for heart-peripheral vascular system, thorax-lung and neurological examination. The most commonly used physical examination skills of nurses were found to be multiple methods and inspections. Conclusion: In the research, it is determined that the nurses did not use physical examination skills at desired level. It was observed that there was a positive correlation between the frequency of the physical examination and the knowledge and skill levels of nurses about it. Although the physical examination knowledge and skill levels of some nurses were high and the frequency of application was high, it was found that the nurses who see physical examination among their roles were high in the training requirements related to the same fields. Keywords: Emergency nurses, training requirement, physical examination