Perceived and actual level of knowledge of diabetes among medical-surgical nurses

The purpose of this study was three fold: To survey the level of perceived and actual knowledge of diabetes mellitus among medical-surgical nurses, to investigate the relationship of perceived to actual knowledge of diabetes, and to identify factors that affect nurses\u27 level of perceived and actual knowledge of diabetes mellitus. Tools used to gather data were the Demographic Data Sheet (DDS), Diabetes Self-Report Tool (DSRT), and Diabetes Basic Knowledge Test (DBKT). The DSRT measured the perceived knowledge of medical surgical nurses. The DSRT revealed a mean score of 67.5 points indicating that the subjects had a moderately high level of perception regarding their knowledge of diabetes. The actual knowledge level of diabetes was measured by the DBKT. A mean score of 66% demonstrated that nurses had less than an adequate level of knowledge of diabetes. A Pearson\u27s Correlation indicated that there was a positive relationship between the subjects\u27 perceived and actual level of knowledge. Multiple Regression statistics on variables obtained from the DDS indicated that reading literature affected the subjects perception while no significant factors were found to affect their actual level of knowledge. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)