Irak'taki Al-Nasseriya şehrindeki hemşirelerin kronik böbrek hastalıkları hakkındaki bilgilerinin değerlendirilmesi

Background: Many types of kidney disease may cause a gradual loss of kidney functions over time. Diabetic kidney disease is a progressive disorder that may lead to renal failure. The kidneys remove waste materials and extra fluid from the circulation and excrete it as urine. A buildup of potentially harmful fluids, electrolytes, and waste products may occur in people with severe chronic renal disease. The most common causes of chronic kidney disease include diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, obesity, certain hereditary illnesses, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption. There may be no outward signs at first, but as the illness progresses, problems like leg swelling, fatigue, vomiting, lack of appetite, and disorientation may appear. Increased risk of cardiovascular disease, renal failure, hypertension, osteoporosis, anemia, blood creatinine levels, urine results, and a thorough medical history are the primary diagnostic tools for chronic kidney disease. The health of patients with chronic kidney disease must be monitored regularly, with clinical and laboratory examinations as well as educational seminars on the risks and treatments for chronic kidney diseases, according to numerous scientific studies and reports from organizations like the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control. Objective: The aim of the study is to assess nurses' knowledge about chronic kidney diseases in Al-Nasseriya City/Iraq. Materials and Method: To achieve the study's aims, descriptive cross-sectional design was used. Between March 2022 and May 2022, non-probability sampling (purposive sampling) was used to conduct this study in the kidney diseases, hemodialysis, and emergency departments at Al-Hussein teaching hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq. The sample included 100 nurses, including 20 from the Kidney Diseases Unit, 31 from the Hemodialysis Unit, and 56 from the Emergency Room of Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital. A two-part questionnaire was prepared as a data collection tool. The socio-demographic profile of the nursing staff is questioned in the first part (age, gender, educational level, marital status, clinical nursing experience, place of the unit, duration of working in the unit, status of following updated information, information sources, status of receiving training on chronic kidney diseases or course of chronic kidney diseases). The second part consists of 33 questions and their responses (sure, not sure, and I don't know). Each nurse's level of knowledge was evaluated based on the percentage of correct responses. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The majority of the participants were female, aged 20–29, and had completed secondary school in nursing or a nursing training program. They were married and had a high experience (49%) of six to ten years in clinical nursing work, a great majority of the participants worked in emergency departments (49%), and the vast majority of them had worked in those units for one to five years (56%). 55% of the participants did not want to get scientific information about kidney disease. The majority of people with chronic kidney disease learned about such information from books and the Internet. The vast majority of them did not receive any kind of training on chronic kidney disease. Even though 68% of the nursing staff held degrees from secondary schools and institutes, their knowledge of chronic kidney disease was low based on their responses to the questionnaire items and since they did not follow recent scientific developments. Conclusion: The results of the study revealed that most of the participants had moderate knowledge of chronic kidney disease because of their low levels of education, the absence of training courses specialized in kidney disease, and the lack of educational programs and protocols to train those staff.