An examination of the knowledge, attitudes and practice of nurses regarding the nutrition of surgery patients

In order to protect and prolong the lives of surgery patients, adequate nutrition is necessary, and surgery nurses, with their holistic care roles, are an important part of ensuring this. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practice of nurses working in surgery units regarding the nutrition of surgery patients. The study was conducted between June and October 2014 in the surgery units of Dokuz Eylül University Hospital and Ege University Medical Faculty Hospital. The study sample was composed of 252 nurses who were working in the surgery clinics of these hospitals and who agreed to take part in the research. The questionnaire used to collect data was developed by the researchers after consultation with experts, and consisted of 48 questions in four sections on the nurses' sociodemographic characteristics and their knowledge, attitudes and practice with regard to nutrititon. Data was expressed numerically and as percentages and means, and processed by computer using Kolmogrov Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests, and Cronbach's α and Spearman rank correlation analyses. The mean age of the nurses participating in the study was 32.51±6.88 years; 65.9% had received training on the nutrition of surgery patients; their knowledge level score was 39.39, their attitude score was 42.94, and 63.9% of them had a knowledge level of "good". As the nurses' age and years of work increased, their knowledge scores also increased; the attitude scores of nurses who had received training were higher, and as knowledge level scores increased, attitude scores also increased. It was found that 44.8% of the nurses had carried out nutrition identification of all the patients in the clinic, 85.7% had reported to a doctor when they thought a patient was inadequately nourished, 66.7% had devoted sufficient time to patients in the nutritionally at-risk group, and 71.8% had managed patients' nutrition by "making a nutrition identification and working with the dietician and the doctor". As a result of the study, it was found that as the scores of surgery nurses on knowledge of nutrition increased, their attitude scores also increased. Therefore, it is recommended that in-service training on the importance of nutrition in surgery patients in hospitals and its results should be planned, and that standards should be developed to cover the assessment of the nutritional status of patients.