Assessment of knowledge & practices of critical care nurses about ets for adult patients in Al Diwaniyah city hospitals at Iraq

Background: In intensive care units, endotracheal suctioning (ETS) is an necessary technique. It involves taking lung excretions out of a patient who is using an artificial airway. When administering this technique, all intensive care nurses must be aware of any possible risks a patient may be exposed to and should make every attempt to prevent or reduce these risks. Objectives : The goal of the research is to determine Assessment of the knowledge and practice of critical care nurses about ETS in hospitals determine the relationship between demographic characteristic data with nurse's knowledge and practices. Methodology: The type of the study is descriptive & cross-sectional was performed in Al-Diwaniyah city hospitals on Suitability sample of 109 critical-care nurses from three hospitals to assess the practices & knowledge of critical care nurses about ETS for elderly patients. It was carried out in the period from (1/4/2022) to (1/7/2022). Results: The biggest percentage of the research samples are men (70%) and the rest are women, and the current research shows that (60%) of the research samples are among the ages of (20-29) years, and the educational level represents The biggest percentage of them (54%) were from the Faculty of Nursing, and (34%) for not more than a year were employees in the ICU, and most of them (58) were employees (1-5) years of working in nursing field , (68%) of them had a teaching course In the (ICU) category (1-2) workshops were 54.1%. conclusions : nurses have practical level higher than the knowledge and there is no association among demographic data with nurse's knowledge and practices To prevent risks on patients life and get the greatest results, nurses doing this practice must be skilled and well-educated. So there is an urgent need for the necessity of broadening the knowledge horizon of the staff of nurses through continuous education and continuous training courses