Interpreting the electrocardiography findings of nursesdetermination of knowledge levels

This research was carried out as a quasi-experimental pretest-training-posttest without control group in order to determine the level of knowledge of nurses in interpreting Electrocardiography (ECG) findings. The study was completed with 134 nurses working in the intensive care units and services of Ankara Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital between 20th May and 7th June 2019. In the study, a questionnaire consisting of two parts was used as a data collection tool. In the first part, there were 8 questions including sociodemographic characteristics and in the second part there were 25 questions for ECG interpretation. 134 nurses were pre-tested by the researcher. 52 nurses who accepted to receive training received one-to-one ECG training and then post-test. SPSS 22.0 package program was used for the analysis of the data and Shapiro-Wilk's, Kruskall-Wallis H, Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney U test and Bofferoni tests were used for statistical analysis. There was a significant difference in the pre-test ECG interpretation (8.0) and recognition of lethal rhythms (4.0) scores of nurses (n:134) (p <0.005). In the pre-test, the nurses' scores on ECG interpretation and recognition of lethal rhythms were graduate degrees (where 11.5 and 6.0); There was a significant difference between the groups in terms of working in intensive care unit (11,0 and 5,0) and receiving previously prepared ECG training (11,0 and 5,0) (p <0,005). The mean scores of ECG interpretation (7.0) and recognition of lethal rhythms (4.0) were low in the post-test (14.0 and 6.0 in the room). Son of nurses test ECG interpretation scores graduate graduate (16,0); 9 years and under professional experience (15,0); Historically significant differences were found in cases with clinical experience of 9 years or less (14.0). In the post-test, there was a significant difference in the recognition of lethal rhythms only in nurses with a clinical experience of 9 years and under (6.0). As a result, it is recommended that nurses receive ECG training given in undergraduate, graduate and in-service trainings at frequent intervals, using one-to-one visually rich material. Keywords: Knowledge level, ECG, education, nurse, rhtyhm.