Determining the knowledge levels of intensive care nurses about the arterial blood gas interpretation and acid-base disorders

Arterial blood gas (ABG) is an important laboratory method that provides information on the metabolic and respiratory status of the patients. It is a required skill for nurses who work in intensive care (IC) units to analyze all components of ABG accurately not to cause false treatment and to notice minor changes in the patient. This study was conducted to determine the knowledge levels of IC nurses about the ABG analysis interpretation and acid-base disorders. This descriptive study was conducted with 155 nurses who worked in the IC units of a training and research hospital. The necessary permissions were obtained before the study. Data were collected with a questionnaire. In the evaluation of the data, the frequency and percentage distributions of the descriptive characteristics of the participants were determined and the "Normality Test" was performed, and the median value was found with the "K-Independent Samples" among the nonparametric tests due to the opinion that the data did not distribute normally. Those above the median value were considered to have a successful knowledge level and those equal to or below the median value were considered to have an unsuccessful knowledge level. Of the IC nurses, 45.2% were aged between 26-31, 58.7% were female, 69% had a license degree, 24.5% had a professional experience of 61 months or longer, and 41.9% worked at the IC between 1-12 months. Of the nurses, 58.1% received education about this, 25.8% received this education in the hospital, 33.6% did not consider this training sufficient, and 44.5% had a moderate knowledge level. Additionally, the educational status of the nurses positively affected their ability to interpret ABG analysis while their state of receiving training about acid-base disorders positively affected their knowledge level (P< 0.05). In conclusion, a significant difference was found between the knowledge levels of IC nurses about the ABG analysis interpretation and acid-base disorders, the state of receiving education about this matter and the perceived level of their knowledge level while there were no significant differences between age, marital status, and the working period in the profession and the IC. Vocational training can be repeated in regular intervals to increase the knowledge levels of the IC nurses about the ABG analysis interpretation and acid-base disorders with these results.