Determining the knowledge levels of nurses working in surgery and internal clinics concerning steroid treatment

Determining the Knowledge Levels of Nurses Working in Surgery and Internal Clinics Concerning Steroid Treatment This study was conducted for the purpose of determining the knowledge levels of surgical nurses and internal clinics nurses concerning steroid treatment. This descriptive study was carried out with a total of 261 nurses between February 7th – March 6th, 2019, who agreed to participate in the study and were neither on leave nor on sick leave between the aforementioned dates, among 326 nurses working in the Surgery and Internal Clinics of Afyon Kocatepe University Ahmet Necdet Sezer Research and Application Hospital. Study data were collected using a "Questionnaire Form for Nurse's Knowledge of Steroid Treatment", which includes the sections of "Personal Information Form", "General Information", "Complications" and "Nursing Practices" and consists of a total of 3 sections and 54 items. Examining the study findings; it was determined that 63,6% worked in surgery clinics and 36.4% in internal clinics, 20,7% had trained on steroid drugs after graduation. It was determined that the nurses obtained mean 12,52 ± 4,7 points from the section of general information about mean 8,13±3,1 points from the section of information about complications of the steroid treatment; mean 14,34 ±4,4 points from the section of information about nursing practices in the steroid treatment and the nurses obtained scores above average from all of the sections of the questionnaire. It was determined that the nurses working in internal clinics obtained higher scores from all of the sections of the questionnaire than the nurses working in surgery clinics; the nurses with bachelor's degree and postgraduate degree had higher knowledge scores than the nurses who were high school graduates and had associate degree; and as the nurses' length of working in the profession and length of clinical experience increased, the knowledge scores increased. As a result of the study, it was found that the nurses' knowledge scores were above average; however, patient training was not given the required priority. Keywords: Steroid Treatment, Corticosteroid, Nursing, Patient Training, Knowledge Levels.