Knowledge level of neonatal intensive-care nurses on the care requirements of babies with physiological jaundice and their mothers and factors affecting nurses' knowledge

Objective: The study has been designed to be descriptive in order to determine the knowledge level of neonatal intensive-care nurses on care requirements of babies with physiological jaundice and their mothers as well as the factors affecting nurses' level of knowledge. Methods: The universe of the survey includes nurses working in the Neonatal Intensive-Care Units of Group Florence Nightingale Hospitals, while the sample comprises of 40 nurses who were available and agreed to participate at the time of the survey. Permits from the institution and approval of the ethics committee were obtained. Data were collected through a questionnaire, which were analyzed by SPSS 16.0 software. Findings: Considering the demographic characteristics of the nurses, 52.5% of them were under the age of 25; 57.5% were bachelor's degree graduates; 47.5% had a work experience of 2-5 years; and 87.5% were single. Nurses' knowledge level of jaundice total full score was found to be 25, with an average of 16.08 ± 3.23, care for mother full score 13, with an average of 12.80 ± 0.51, and the total knowledge level full score 38, with an average of 28.87 ± 3.36. The nurses received their lowest scores in phototherapy applications and the number of daily meals for babies with physiological jaundice. When the demographic characteristics of nurses and their averages of total knowledge level scores were compared, the scores of nurses who were 25 or older, married, with a work experience of 6-10 years were found to be significantly higher (p<0.05). When the knowledge level of nurses on care for mothers and their total knowledge level were compared to their age, education, marital status and the inpatient bed capacity, no statistically significant difference was observed (p>0.05). Result: Nurses who had a work experience of 6-10 years, and were 25 or older, were found to have higher levels of knowledge on both jaundice and care for mothers, while married nurses were found to have higher level of knowledge on jaundice vis-a-vis single ones. The study has revealed that nurses lack some knowledge related to nursing interventions applied to infants with physiological jaundice, implementation of phototherapy, and complications that may arise during treatment. Keywords: Physiological jaundice, knowledge level, newborn, intensive care, nurse.