Evaluation of current knowledge and practices regarding eye care of nurses working in the intensive care unit

In intensive care units, care is given to patients with low level of consciousness in general. Such patients develop defect in ocular protective mechanisms and this leads to the development of eye complications. For this reason, the approach of intensive care nurses is important in providing eye care and detecting ophthalmological problems. This study is a descriptive study conducted with 207 nurses working in the intensive care units of three public hospitals in Adana between October and December 2022 in order to evaluate the current knowledge, attitudes and practices of intensive care nurses on eye care. Nurse Descriptive Information Form and Eye Care Clinical Competence Scale were used in the study. The data were evaluated with the SPSS statistical program and the statistical significance value was accepted as p<0.05. 75.8% of the nurses participating in the study were women, 75.8% were undergraduate graduates, and their average age was 34.37±7.81 years. It was observed that 45.9% of the nurses work in the 3rd level intensive care unit, 52.7% have intensive care certificates and 70% follow current practices in eye care. It was found that 54.1% of the nurses did not keep a record of their eye problems and 25% of them saw too much paperwork as an obstacle in providing eye care. It was observed that there was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the total scale size of the Eye Care Clinical Competence Scale, according to the nurses' follow-up status of current studies on nursing practices in the intensive care unit (p=0.036). It was observed that there was a statistically significant difference between the application sub-dimension of the Eye Care Clinical Competence Scale and the total scale score averages according to the nurses' intensive care certificate (p=0.020, p=0.023). A statistically significant difference was found between the mean scores of the Eye Care Clinical Competence Scale knowledge sub-dimension according to the educational status of the participants (p=0.001). It was found that the mean score in the knowledge sub-dimension of the nurses who graduated from pre-graduate education was low. As a result, it has been seen that the education level of intensive care nurses is important, there are obstacles in providing eye care in intensive care, and the status of following current studies and having an intensive care certificate has positive results in providing eye care. Keywords: Nursing, Intensive Care Unit, Eye Care, Nurses Knowledge, Nurses Practice